this hot day
the sky is far away
- and the space

pink and blue clouds
drifting into harbour
on the evening tide

on the river
brent geese plait water
and winter light

pyracantha bush
loud with berries
and starlings

lifting wheelbarrow down
find bunch of snails
to plant in garden

Eve Jackson

Labels: haiku

Tiny poems have been winging their way to Eye all week, after we invited readers to try their hand at the classic haiku form. Some of you exercised your Quakerliness to keep in right ordering. Our first haiQ, from Ian McPherson, apparently didn't fulfil the letter, if it did the spirit, for one reader.

Wrote Bill Schaeffer: 'the tutor in my writing class told us that a haiku has lines of five, seven, and five syllables, which the example of Ian McPherson does not. Is it possible that the following observation does not apply to him?'

In order to write
A haiku one must have a
Very high IQ

Generally speaking, your haikus did hit the seventeen syllables mark, if in different formats.
Here a Quaker beekeeper, Anna Botwright, shows profound gratitude that her charges have made it through the winter.
A late winter hive –
Tender sun recalls warm days
Bees break loose and soar

Eye liked this one about 'presence' – although it lacked a season-word:
Complete perception
Zero interpretation
Perfect presence now
(Richard Chapman)

Some missed the syllable count but were magical nevertheless:
In the half dark
Hidden in the hawthorn –
A nightingale sings
(Denise Bennett)

Seasons are important for haikus. They should all contain a 'season word'. Here are two for February.
Squirrels leap, greet
The greening of the park –
Wheeling seagulls presage rain
(Jennifer Kavanagh)

clouds smudge the sky
behind bare trees -
in the dark field crows excavate the spring
(SF)

And another bee presence:
Dripping parasols
Bee-worked lavender, roses,
Incense of garden
(Rilla Dudley)

We'll decorate our page with occasional haikus and in the meantime we'll sign off with one of our own:
Very small poems
Sunlight and essence follow –
our concentration
(Eye)

Labels: haiku

Our highlighting of the haiku poetic form in the Friend (15 February) struck a chord with Ian McPherson. Ian lives in a part of the country perfect for a haiku lover - Cumbria - and Brigflatts is his meeting. 'I have long regarded haiku as quintessentially "Quaker" poetry', he says, 'embodying, as it does, simplicity, economy, integrity, a nature theme, deep insight into the human condition and, perhaps above all, the spontaneity by which, like ministry, it arises from the silence'.
Ian offers some writers to help a novice haiku poet - Sam Hamill (The Sound of Water), Kenneth Yasuda (Japanese Haiku) and William J Higginson (The Haiku Handbook - How to Write, Share and Teach Haiku).
Ian has a novel idea for us. 'I would like to propose a regular "Haiku (HaiQ?) Corner" in the Friend which would contain one or two original haiku submitted by readers. Not only would this provide haikuists with the opportunity to appear in print but might also serve to inspire others to try their hand. It is a wonderfully simple yet profound way of being creative with words and of sharing one's insight with others.' And he has started the ball rolling with one of his own –

Jackdaws protest -
The lone jogger disturbs their roost
As evening comes on.

This is in keeping with our search for a leaner, more disciplined poetry. Eye invites readers to try their hand at the very short poem and we will print the best ones.

Labels: haiku, poetry