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.

SUMMER RAIN

Just when

we are thinking

to erase the word

rain from the dictionary

the monsoons arrive.

The golden barrel cactus

grows round, plump,

and full.

The seams

of the saguaro

fill and their deep creases

flesh out.

Even the small yellow

creosote flower

permeates the air

in heavy, heady fragrance.

We all

heed the signs:

Avoid arroyos

during flash floods. 

    Poets have been writing poems about the weather for a long time.  I can remember when we were in England people used to say, "If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes.  It will change."   This is why they carry umbrellas, the British never know when it might rain.  Can you write your own poem about weather?