Heather's Haiku Page

Why Coo?

The haiku art is addictive. I've always played with haiku. but I became more serious about haiku as an art form when I saw Jane Reichhold's lovely haiku pages.

Molasses night.
The cloud of gnats rises
Above the doorway.

It's especially fun to haiku with friends. Haiku goes hand in hand with online communication; I've seen haiku arise spontaneously in many different online fora. Haiku can be playful or serious, light or shot through with silken metaphor. Like a watercolor painting, haiku captures the moment and then flits on.

Lilies of the Nile
Tilting a bit past their prime.
Green hummingbird's whir.

I composed all of the haiku in this collection, mostly as riffs in discussions with friends online. The single haiku scattered on this particular page were chosen for their length. The links lead to longer haiku, lines of pebbles reaching across the water. This page is sorted roughly by topic. The topics you'll find on this page include:

Rain-inspired haiku
Haiku from humdrum daily existence
(these are some of the best, in my opinion)
Haiku about birth, death, and other life-changing events
Playful and sarcastic haiku
Haiku inspired by religion
Romance (too many of these end tragically.
I've also snuck a few honest-to-goodness poems in amongst the romantic haiku)
Computer-and-technology haiku. (I've written lots of these,
but most of them don't warrant repeating.)
Nature

Five blue Steller's jays
Gather round the compost bin.
Where are those cats?

Like much else, this page is dedicated to Bonnie Bedford. I miss her haiku as much as I miss the rest of her.

Since I first created this page in 1997, I've learned a lot about haiku. Many of the haiku on this page no longer fit my definition of haiku, nor would they be recognized as such by serious haijin. They do, however, reflect where I've been.

The background for this page is an arashi shibori pattern hand-dyed by yours truly.