My wife informed me that today is International Haiku Poetry Day. Believe it or not, I was completely unaware! She heard it from good friends of ours who, chose to celebrate with ice cream. (Yes, we’ll be heading out to the local ice cream parlor ourselves despite the sub-fifty degree weather here after I post! I’m always ready for an excuse to celebrate with ice cream!) Rather than forging forward with my “yellow” poem, I’ll save that for next week. Instead, lets park on the deceptively simple Japanese form that many of us learned, but likely never mastered, at some point in school.
Few of us will ever reach the heights of haiku greatness where Matsuo Bashō dwells, but the five-seven-five syllable count over three lines is more than achievable. Tie in nature, and you’re even closer to capturing the power of this compacted form. Below is a series of five haiku, one for each of the five senses. They are snapshots of a visit to my parents’ house back in July 2015, one of the last times I visited my childhood home outside of Philadelphia.
Vignettes
Vincent H. Anastasi - 2015 SEE tiny pinpricks of floating light -- luminescent smear on my windshield TOUCH toddler hands tightly grip as I support each step more firm and secure SMELL from pots and ovens polyphonic armoas delectable life HEAR many voices speak like streams that merge together under this one roof TASTE tall medium roast heavy cream, stevia sweet many miles to go
the deepening ground 