winter moods (sequence that worked)
November sky
rains into stray runnels
into cesspools
drenched in the rain
city pavements let no step
leave a sign
on paved walls–
I trace the patchwork
by the moody rain
catching winter clouds
shielding for themselves alone
the marine blue sky
up frosty mountain peaks—
i wonder about the lily
in a summer pond
Published in LYNX XXVI:I, February 2011
A ‘sequence’ is another haiku-related form in English haiku where individual haiku along the same theme are put together. I seem to have better chances in getting accepted with it although most of my sequences have only been published in LYNX and The Cortland Review (Issue 39, ‘revenant’) not a haiku and its related forms but a poetry journal.
The form comes rather easily to me–I do it even here with my posts; when I start composing right here, one haiku often isn’t enough for an image/thought/moment that comes to mind. Sometimes I want to give up on writing haiku and perhaps just get on with my poetry, which seems to have given me a more distinctive voice but haiku whips me back to shape with its discipline and brevity. I look at it as a wisp of air, a mist, fog swarming over me so I may fade and be one with it.
And so, to add a haiku to this sequence
stepping into the fog
knowing
i, too, fade
sunlight
1.
sunlight swarms even on cesspools
2.
along some rivers only the pale sunlight
3.
after the sunlight fireflies
4.
tracking down a narrowed creak sunlight
5.
smiling in the sunlight she