Haiku Experiment

Kerouac was a master at the Western haiku. Not the one limited by the 5-7-5 syllables of the Japanese haiku, but the more free-form version. He was adamant however about not using what he called "literary trickery" like metaphor, but in my attempts I'm not so sure I was able to stick to that form. He also worked to get a sense of season in the haiku, a tradition. I gave that a shot also, trying to be subtle. He was also inconsistent about using punctuation; sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't.

So, I gave it a shot during breaks in manuscript writing.

Here's one of my favorites from Jack:

Crossing the football field,

coming home from work,

The lonely businessman

And another:

The summer chair

rocking by itself

In the blizzard

And a couple of my own attempts:

Scurrying lizards on the porch

quick to safety shade

My writing waits

And another:

Bike to cup of coffee

a path in the sun

To mediate

And so it goes from Jack's place...

David