Happy Haiku Poetry Day!

Five, seven, and five.
This balance makes a haiku
We now celebrate

Such simple beauty
Beyond words and beyond rhyme
Found in just three lines

Of Japanese fame,
Haiku once was called Hokku
Preface to Rengu

Late 1800s,
By Masaoka Shiki,
The Haiku thus named

Then master of form,
Now Sainted of Poetry,
Matsuo Bashō

Language may falter,
Imagination translates
Where words reach and fail

行春や 鳥啼き魚の 目は泪
Spring is passing
The birds cry, and the fishes’ eyes are
With tears.

Matsuo Bashō

Modern Haiku can
Pull tradition to breaking
Snip a rule or two

life’s little, our heads
sad. Redeemed and wasting clay
this chance. Be of use.

Ravi Shankar, “Lines on a Skull”

So go, inhale life
Exhale beauty in slow breath
As words flit on page

Another day goes,
Another to celebrate,
Happy Haiku Day!