Haiku Fun

My magnificent husband gives me little gifts occasionally. Nothing like Aristotle Onassis gave Jackie, as he would hide a new piece of jewelry in her breakfast rolls as a surprise...but a little something that he sees while he is out and reminds him of me.

Very often, this little gift is a Moleskine. They are terribly expensive for what they are, but I have come to adore them. Nothing takes the place of these little books and I have three or four going at once, each with a different purpose.

Last week, he brought me a new black Moleskine with lined paper. I set aside until it told me what it considered its use to be. Not long did it make me wait.

I picked it up November 9, removed the wrapping and made the first entry in this new book. It wanted to be a book of Haiku.

A little background on Haiku. Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry written in 17 moras (commonly thought of as syllables), arranged in 3 lines of 5 moras, 7 moras, 5 moras. Typically, there is a seasonal reference and what they call a "cutting word". Think of it as a hard stop. The concept of the cutting word is difficult to explain, and I don't adhere to it anyway, so I will not go into it.

With my Haiku, I simply write what I feel at that moment. I have written a Haiku each day since I opened my new book. Here are a few:

If you steal this book,
You will pay for it dearly.
"The book or your life."

I wrote this one because on the first page of the Moleskine, there is always a place for the amount of reward for returning a lost book. I think this is ridiculous.

Wednesday is church night.
I'm not feeling it tonight.
Instead? Martini.

It is November.
That means next month is Christmas.
It's time to panic.

See how easy, yet descriptive? In this day of verbose nonsense, people talking to hear the lovely sounds of their voices, et cetera, et cetera ... it is a good exercise to cull your thoughts. Hone your comments. Trim your broadcast.

I think there's a Haiku in that...