This 20-week Haiku challenge originally began last March, with a part of a private affinity group (BTTHaiku) from the Buddhist Temple of Toledo. Every Monday at 9am, we were supplied with something called a Kigo, or season word, as our theme. I was really into it last Spring, but then life took over. This weekly Haiku blog is a way of me catching up on the themes I missed, and sharing my poems alongside my poetry. Eventually, the aim is to get enough haiku’s so that I may publish a book consisting entirely of, well… Haiku (and art)! For the first few weeks I will be posting more in order to catch up, but will then settle back into the normal weekly Haiku schedule. For this section of my website, I will be going by the Dharma name, Fusei.

Week 1 Kigo: Slush

3.1.21

Frozen slush covers

The hardened earth and branches

Just like the Dharma

-Fusei

Slush: Haiku and Photo Commentary

These photos were taken in January 2018. It was a really odd Midwestern winter. Things kept freezing and unfreezing. Every morning when I looked out, the branches were dripping ice. I had just gotten back from a flop of an attempt at an outdoor winter music video (an acoustic version of La Vie En Rose). My flute was flat, the guitarist was sharp, and one of the two cameras lost all the memory that was on the card. I wanted to do something creative, and so I went out into the backyard of my parents house, where the house is surrounded by pines and shrubs.

Haiku: Some days, a tree just seems like a tree. The ground, simply a place to walk on. Other times, every aspect of nature looks like a teacher that I have yet to learn a lesson from.

To see my music writing, check out the Fusion Blog.