January 6: Writing Haiku, Basho, "Winter Solitude"

I have a confession:  I suck at writing haiku.  I have tried and tried to come up with a successful one, and I have failed and failed.  I usually end up writing things like this:

Wake in the morning--
room still dark
lizard toe breath

Like I said, I suck.  Not that I've completely given up on haiku.  Every once in a while, I will jot something down in my journal that I think is profound.  When I reread it a few days later, it has lost its profundity.

Haiku are deceptively simple.  Little breaths of verse that leave you breathless.  Three lines.  One image.  A last line that makes you gasp with recognition and surprise.  I wanted to write a winter haiku for tonight, but I couldn't.  I have to turn to Basho, the seventeenth century Japanese master of the form.

Saint Marty writes haiku
on winter night.
Frozen dog turd

Winter Solitude