Tag Archives: Haiku 365

My haikus for February. (The last one says March 1, but I wrote it a day late, so it “belongs” to February.)

January’s haikus are here.

#32: 2/1/2015
Snowflakes congregate
above, huddling, before
downward exodus.

#33: 2/3/2015
Ten icy fingers
while the rest of me is warm.
Seriously, hands?

#34: 2/3/2015
Moon in the branches,
blind eye searching for her mate.
Cardinal calls for dawn.

#35: 2/4/2015
Whitewashed winter sky,
sparkling fields of white below.
In between, my breath.

#36: 2/5/2015
Coffee pot babbles
in the last hour of night,
sighs, and goes to sleep.

#37: 2/6/2015
Some wretched mornings
blossom into sterling days
if I tend them well.

#38: 2/7/2015
Old train tracks cut through
the town like a telegraph
from a harder age.

#39: 2/8/2015
Tired in spirit,
tired in limbs, head, and heart,
still upon the path.

#40: 2/9/2015
Read the signs, dear one.
Auguries and meteors:
something is at hand.

#41: 2/10/2015
Neurons are empty.
Signals flicker back and forth
to no great effect.

#42: 2/11/2015
These gentle rhythms,
day upon day, breakfast, bed,
stretch on year to year.

#43: 2/12/2015
Look out the window.
Framed in proper rectangles,
all the savage world.

#44: 2/13/2015
After the movie,
scenes and songs still flicker on.
Life is epilogue.

#45: 2/14/2015
First sip of cool beer.
Spicy aroma, dark glass,
a toast to winter.

#46: 2/15/2015
Dinner together,
husband and wife on the couch.
Rare steak and brownies.

#47: 2/16/2015
Different kinds of cold:
subtle chill in frosty air,
or bone-biting ice.

#48: 2/17/2015
No one is certain.
Scientists, prophets, teachers.
No one knows for sure.

#49: 2/18/2015
Comfortable inside,
looking out at frigid dark.
Forgot to get mail.

#50: 2/20/2015
Mexican dinner,
friends celebrate the week’s end.
Smell of Corona.

#51: 2/20/2015
The front doorbell rings.
Betsy and I lack nothing;
who upsets our peace?

#52: 2/21/2015
Fog in the darkness,
fellow cars all rushing by.
Where are they headed?

#53: 2/22/2015
Newly painted room
welcomes me with muted hue.
Just one shade of gray.

#54: 2/24/2015
Eating veggie soup,
vibrant garden potpourri.
Someday, winter ends.

#55: 2/24/2015
Squeak! goes the old chair,
not caring if it gets oil,
singing its old song.

#56: 2/26/2015
Talk grammar to me.
Pronoun antecedents, yeah.
Conjugate that verb.

#57: 2/26/2015
Betsy and Brian,
orbiting each other like
new binary stars.

#58: 2/27/2015
Dishwasher chortles,
furnace breathes, dryer rattles.
Evening symphony.

#59: 3/1/2015
End of the weekend,
Sunday blues creep on like fog.
Monday starts anew.

Late last year, Mom threw down the gauntlet. A haiku a day, every day, for an entire year. I accepted the challenge, and 2015 is now the Year of the Haiku for both of us.

It’s been a lot of fun so far. Most days I write about something going on that day. Sometimes I miss a day and catch up afterward, but I’ve been pretty good about not falling too far behind.

Disclaimer: as usual, when I say “haiku,” I mean it in the Americanized sense of any poem with 5-7-5 syllables. The original Japanese concept has some additional complexity which I’ve chosen to ignore.

Anyway, here are mine for January.

#1 – 1/1/2015
Turning of the years,
interlocking teeth that drive
what obscure machine?

#2 – 1/3/2015
Rainy winter days,
pattering shingles above.
Prophecies of snow.

#3 – 1/3/2015
Popcorn in a bowl:
milky firecrackers, popped,
huddling saltless.

#4 – 1/4/2015
Memories on the wind
rush through protective jackets,
shivering marrow.

#5 – 1/6/2015
Beacons in the night
marching two by two, on ice,
lead reluctant cars.

#6 – 1/6/2015
Where are you, my ghost?
Lively spirit, my sad bones
tremble without you.

#7 – 1/7/2015
Now pain, now pleasure,
now hearth, now frost, battling:
cycles of the soul.

#8 – 1/9/2015
Bare branches frowning,
relics of a longer day
and a sweeter song.

#9 – 1/9/2015
House is a dragon.
Fires in the basement belly
keep the beast toasty.

#10 – 1/11/2015
Warm weekend blankets
are a minor Paradise,
staving off the day.

#11 – 1/11/2015
Long row of pine trees,
some bent, some proud, some ragged:
soldiers in a line.

#12 – 1/12/2015
Shoveling driveway,
scraping metal on cement,
I make my own warmth.

#13 – 1/13/2015
Phone call, birthday wish –
laughter and a mother’s love
soar through frigid air.

#14 – 1/14/2015
Night winds receding,
all around a brilliant hush:
Sacred crystal dawn.

#15 – 1/15/2015
White cup, black coffee,
morning in microcosm,
stark sun, bitter night.

#16 – 1/16/2015
Cool splash of champagne
washes sizzling on the tongue.
Glasses clink again.

#17 – 1/17/2015
Ready for journey –
clothes packed, toothbrushes, printouts.
All we need are miles.

#18 – 1/18/2015
Giggling baby boy
crawls vast landscapes of carpet.
Less freedom, more free.

#19 – 1/19/2015
Crispness of apple –
crunch! Yellow skin, juice on tongue.
Today I’m alive.

#20 – 1/20/2015
Sudden rush of snow
spills wildly on roads, kids, grass
and as fast retreats.

#21 – 1/22/2015
Click-clack of black keys,
sending mind via fingers.
Neurons, pixels, one.

#22 – 1/22/2015
Velveteen starscape
unfurls lavishly above.
Whose silence is this?

#23 – 1/23/2015
Simple luxuries;
better than a Cadillac:
taking off my shoes.

#24: 1/24/2015
Yawn – sagging eyelids,
slow thoughts limping home to rest.
Feet demand their bed.

#25: 1/25/2015
Morning. Chilly hands.
Hum of furnace, placid air,
omens of the day.

#26: 1/27/2015
Deer in the back yard
leaps over fence light as wind,
snow-dust in her wake.

#27: 1/27/2015
New church parking lot
beside old church; spires and smog,
buttresses and cars.

#28: 1/28/2015
Rivers of lightning
pour from shadows overhead
rushing like desire.

#29: 1/29/2015
Late and still awake,
tangled dreams and might-have-beens
murmur in my skull.

#30: 1/30/2015
Writing a story
spills soul like ink upon page,
illustrates the heart.

#31: 1/31/2015
Meeting your friend’s friends
for the first time: tentative
jokes, novel laughter.