Friday 16 January 2009

Haiku written in Utah this past December

Both take each poem individually and take the whole as a set.  I know Haiku is pretty nerdy, or at the very least, quite middle schooly, but I love it--partly for its power as something simple to magnify an experience.  When we try to focus on too much, something is lost.  And when you only have 17 syllables to use, you pick them very carefully.

I know my writing is mediocre at best but I hope these below at least capture a feeling of what it's like to be on the Wasatch front in the winter.  




White, hulking mountains,
Lit up by a late half moon,
Stop me in the street.

Chasing the half moon,
The sun slowly brings to life
A sleepy valley.

The haze that enshrouds
Salt Lake valley is best seen
From its wild mountains

Something in the brush
Scared off my tree of dining
Finches. Was it me?

An icy, clear stream
Rests between the warmed north slope
And the cool white south.

Paper white aspens,
Just stand still the front yard,
At home in the snow.

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