HAIKU

coyotes howl
3 AM
still  4 AM


     Yesterday I used the title of my poem to set the topic of the poem.  Haiku do not have titles, so I had to use the first line to carry the topic.  Do these there lines carry a whole story for you?  I'm usually not in favor of poems with the ambiguity of word having two meanings, but I think I used that little word still to that advantage here.  The still can mean that the noise is going on still, or it can be like quiet and still. Is that good or misleading to you?  Does it get in the way of the meaning of the poem?  Would it have been better to put that word at the end of the line?  I could have put a coma or a caesura after still, but that seemed too heavy handed to me.  I did put two spaces there though to subtly draw some emphasis to the word.  These are the decisions poets get to make. Now, I could have just as easily have said, I was up all night with the coyotes' howl--but this haiku was more fun for me.  I hope it worked for you too as you participated with the poem.
    Now it is your turn to have fun playing with poetry.  Try your own haiku.  I have a friend, Lenard Moore, who once told me that one needs to write at least a thousand haiku before you get any good at it.  I don't think I've written a thousand yet, but I'm getting close.  Of course, he is the person whose goal is to have 50 poems out for submission at all times.  I'm a long way from that, but it is always nice to have friends who make you stretch.
  Have a happy Sunday writing.

double haiku

inside his burrow

          dug into the arroyo

                    sleeps a diamondback

                    a covey of quail

                              zip and dart, running quickly

                                        snake opens his jaw

        If you enjoy haiku, you might enjoy reading the blog of children's author, poet and quilter Maureen Wartski who makes a practice of writing a haiku a day.
        A haiku journal Simply Haiku has lots of good reading and you might enjoy my friend Lenard Moore's haiku.  He and the North Carolina Haiku Society have taught me a lot about haiku.
      A fun exercise to try is to get a few friends together and try writing linked haiku.  Each person can write one haiku that links to the one before.  Or you can write them yourself.  Take the haiku you wrote yesterday and write another haiku to link to it.  You are welcome to post your double haiku in the comments section.
     Lenard Moore has told me about haiku parties, called renga, in Japan where tables of poets sit to write haiku directed by a haiku master.

Happy Father's Day

Thank You, Daddy

Thanks for giving me a hand

to pull up when I crawled.

Thanks for hoisting me

on your shoulders

so I could feel tall.

Thanks for teaching me

how to ride a bike,

and how to hit the baseball.

Thanks for asking me questions

that really made me think.

Thanks for the movies, the libraries,

the museums, galleries and parks

you took me to.

Thanks Daddy, for all the things

you do to help me grow

to be the kind of person 

I want to be--

like you.

     As we celebrate this great holiday, we focus on fathers.It is a chance to tell the men in our lives how important they are to us.  My own father-in-law is in an acute rehabilitation hospital and so I think of him as I write this poem.  Can you try writing an acrostic poem for your father?  It is a great day for being thankful.

    Publishers Lee and Low have a whole collection of father poems In Daddy's Arms, I Am Tall, collected by Javaka Steptoe.    My friend Lenard Moore has a poem in this collection.  www.leeandlow.com/p/daddy_tg.mhtml