Hello, Haiku Friends!
I couldn’t bear to stay away any longer!
soft quilt covers sky
white tips of gray ocean waves
crash onto the beach
The Poetry of Comfort
Poems are pockets of emotions. Some poem contains every emotion you’ve ever felt or ever wanted to feel or dreaded having to feel.
I’ve had the good fortune to live a life filled with many adventures, and often I have had a wave of emotion crash over me, leaving me drenched and transformed.
When life feels a little too hard, when the adventures have been a little too harrowing, I find I need comfort.
For me, there are two great sources of comfort, the ocean and poetry. Recently, I retreated to the coast for a few days of healing and contemplation.
One morning I sat on a deck, watched the morning tide, and wrote a handful of haiku, including the one at the head of this letter. Later, I read from a book of poetry I first encountered as a callow youth, a book that I am duty-bound to write about for a friend and fellow writer’s newsletter very soon. It was after I put my book down that it struck me how comfortable I was and how good my life is.
How bad could my life ever be if I can find a way to sit and watch the ocean for hours, and when there is always an interesting book of poems nearby?
I can face anything so long as I know that comfort is somewhere beyond the next horizon.
Haiku Prompt
Write a haiku, or series of haiku, about something that brings you comfort. Feel free to use the traditional 5-7-5 structure or write a free verse style haiku. I hope you’ll be bold enough to share your haiku in the comments. Your bravery often inspires others to give haiku a try.
Cheers,
Jason
Welcome back!
hammock stretched between
two trees near the river shore
like the haiku form