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
white sun
white sun
burning through November sky
her nth unanswered call