Joker

A sweltering afternoon. We’re chatting about haiku. “Kigo is a must. There are plenty of kigo in this garden” you say with your mouth full of apple pie. “You’d better shut your mouth, or a kigo will fall in” I reply. We both snort.

That scene pops into my head as I’m standing over your coffin. It is surrounded by a dignified crowd of black-clad mourners. I’m sure you understand why I’m smiling.

molasses candies
another fly is coming
to the redemption

By Mariola Grabowska

Error, Error, Error

While reviewing my July 23rd submission to 5-7-5 Haiku Journal I discovered that the inverted haiku

flowers on forest floor
obliviousness
to trees, yet never their shade

was, obviously, short one syllable in the first line. Instead of adding one syllable (the article “the”) to that first line, thus creating

flowers on the forest floor
obliviousness
to trees, yet never their shade

I made the mistake of subtracting a syllable (the preposition “on”) and rearranging the order of first line words to create

forest floor flowers
obliviousness
to trees, yet never their shade

a Haikuesque of 5-5-7 syllable lines, which you graciously accepted for the August issue of Awen.

I could have gone with the subtraction, and rearranged the lines into the haiku

forest floor flowers
to trees, yet never their shade
obliviousness

but I did not recognise the erroneous correction of my original mistake, and hit ‘Submit’.

And now must offer this haibun as an apologia, concluding with this quote from The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: “…many believe that fitting words to any pattern is a process which is capable of infinite products, so that even superficially similar instances are profoundly different.”

Best Wishes,
David Edwards