13. Porch haiku
PORCH HAIKU — Hayan Chatarra
On the porch
the men argue,
the cat sleeps.
On the porch—
we shut up for a minute
to hear cicadas.
On the porch
listening to the radio—
no survivors.
On the porch
I watch a dog
eat from the trash.
YOUR TURN
Step 1 — choose a place: A bench or a bus or a lawn or a road or a forest. It can be anywhere. You could make it a place you often are.
Example: In the park
Step 2 — build some haikus. A haiku is made out of three short lines. Often, the middle line is the longest. What happens in this place? How succinctly can you conjure the image?
Example: In the park
a dragonfly is born,
a child watches.
In the park
I climb a cypress tree
to be alone
In the park
a tennis player grunts
and hits a backhand
Step 3 — extra marks if you can create a moment of surprise somewhere in one of your haikus. In Hayan’s poem, it comes in the third haiku, where the peaceful porch is suddenly intruded on by tragedy.
Example: In the park
a branch cracks, and soon after
so does my ankle
TIPS AND TRICKS — notice how each haiku paints a complete image; one that the mind’s eye can easily see/hear/touch etc. This is the power of haikus: they don’t ‘talk about’ the world, they conjure it.
