The third line of a haiku always surprises me! It is supposed to have a punch, capturing the message of the haiku with a surprise and a sigh!
What’s the history of haiku?
“Traditional haiku poetry originally was used as an introduction to a Japanese oral poem known as a renga. In the 1500s, Japanese poets began composing haiku as stand-alone verse, and in the 1600s, poet Matsuo Basho elevated haiku to an important art form. The power of haiku lies in its ability to conjure a powerful image or evoke a profound feeling using very few words.”
It’s a three-line poem metered by syllables: five syllables in the first line, seven in the second and five in the third.
My new meditation practice feeds my haiku writing. On January 9, 2023, the meditation leader read a section from Living the Life of Awarenessby Don Miguel Ruiz to start our practice. During our meditation, I ponder the reading then usually write a haiku afterwards. On this day, I wrote the following first two lines:
Where do I focus
In meditation, in life?
Then, as I considered the third line, the possibilities exploded:
Focus on Jesus.
On the crashing waves.
Your strong hand in mine.
Lin’s aged hand in mine.
The hilarious!
On my aging cat!
On my broken heart!
On God’s endless love!
On my breath and yours.
The gorgeous outdoors.
On my neighbor’s needs.
On my unshed tears.
On the dawning day.
On all mysteries!
On the positive!
It’s not about me!
My belly button!
My third lines above vary from serious and introspective to humorous, and it’s always important to add humor to life. I love the simplicity of haiku with an economy of words yet a powerful image.
My favorite haiku reference is Natalie Goldberg’s book, Three Simple Lines, where she shares some of Basho’s haikus. She also has samples from several other Japanese poets.
So, which third line of mine did you like the best of my seventeen? Let me know.
Finally,
Do you see the power of the third line in a haiku? Do you like haikus? If so, do you write them? If so, share one with me.
All available at my website: laradasbooks.com or Amazon.com
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long!Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a chapter!
~My new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? WON the 2022 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards in the Body, Mind & Spirit Category. Have you bought your copy yet?Vist my website: laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
Baby, it’s cold outside! Read about Flippo inside where it’s warm!
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
“Haikuing” through life helps me make sense of this life we’re leading in an economy of words. Yes, life’s topics inspire me to write haikus, a three-line poem with Japanese origin broken up into syllable counts: 1st line–5 syllables, 2nd line–7 syllables, 3rd line–5 syllables.
“Haikuing” While Walking
In 2021, I walked regularly and composed haikus as I walked. Nature inspired the topics easily.
July 15, 2021
Raucous cawing of
Black birds circling above
Noisy neighborhood
July 20, 2021
See your essential
“Spiritual beingness” now
Do not dread your death!
To be present now
I must ground me to something
Earth, please touch my feet.
July 27, 2021
Cloudy skies, humid
New Mexico greens up with
July rains. So fresh!
The desert greens up
With abundant July rains.
Wet, not hot, this year!
August 11, 2021
I turned sixty-eight.
Is that old now? I wonder.
Hell, no! I’m not old.
August 17, 2021
Walking frees my heart
And soul to connect with my
World and God as one!
Puffy white clouds hang
Suspended against blue skies.
Are they cotton balls?
August 18, 2021
Tomatoes, green now
Tomorrow ripe, red and ready.
Joy and juicy now!
One small chunky start
Cucumbers ready to burst
My mouth savors them!
You can’t eat flowers,
But they feed my soul daily.
God’s heavenly fare.
God speaks through flowers.
Multi-colored—see a splash
Of diversity!
Finally,
I write free verse poetry too, but I have always had a love affair with haikus. When I taught poetry to middle schoolers, they wrote wonderful, meaningful haikus. Recently, after attending Natalie Goldberg’s “The Way of Writing” class in 2021 and reading her book, Three Simple Lines, that fire re-ignited in me, and I have fanned the flame regularly to keep them coming.
How about you—do you do “haikuing” through life? Do you like haikus? Do you write them? If so, share one!
~My new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? WON the 2022 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards in the Body, Mind & Spirit Category. I’M SO EXCITED!
~Wish You Were Here: A Novel by Jodi Picoult, one of my favorite authors, deals with the COVID pandemic in fiction as opposed to my nonfiction book. Check it out! Interesting story!
~MY FIRST AUDIOBOOK IS AVAILABLE: Go to Audible to buy my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story. I’m working on Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? but have gotten stalled with shingles.
~Do you listen to podcasts? Here are three podcasts with interviews about my new book & some Flippo stories:
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long! Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
July is ending, and I can’t believe it. I’m going to Denver with my brother to see the Rockies play the LA Dodgers on Sunday and to the Broncos Training camp on Monday morning, so this will be a shorter blog post, featuring some of my haikus.
During my walks in 2021, these haikus came to me. I’d count out the syllable as I walked (1st line—5 syllables; 2nd line—7 syllables; 3rd line—5 syllables). Then I repeated them several times so I wouldn’t forget them before jotting them down when I got home. The subjects varied—usually the day and what was going on generated it.
So, enjoy!
March 29
Now I walk alone
Not a tragedy at all.
My best companion!
April 3
Good Friday has come.
The world awaits Easter Day.
Jesus is alive!
Repeat their dear names
Out loud, often with respect.
Keeps them present here.
April 7
A sad hollow space
In my heart. No room for him.
Abuser died—gone!
April 19
Cataracts, oh my!
Slowly my vision changed, but
Surgery clears it!
April 29
Dare to love deeply!
One more loss added today!
Open heart once more!
May 24
Blackbirds above—caw!
My walk companions now.
I prefer your view!
Finally,
The structure and limitations of haiku force me to think about my word choice, making the verse crisp. Then the punch or twist at the end sometimes comes as a surprise.
July ending had nothing to do with my haikus’ subjects. I’ll share my July haikus in another post.
Do you read poetry? Do you like haikus? What is your favorite form of poetry?
~WATCH MY NEW INTERVIEW on Chat & Spin Radio, from Friday, June 24, 2022. Join us for a lively description of all my books!
~MY FIRST AUDIOBOOK IS AVAILABLE: Go to Audible to buy my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story. I’m working on Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? but have gotten stalled with shingles.
~Do you listen to podcasts? Here are three podcasts with interviews about my new book & some Flippo stories:
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long! Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
~Wish You Were Here: A Novelby Jodi Picoult, one of my favorite authors, deals with the COVID pandemic in fiction as opposed to my nonfiction book. Check it out! Interesting story!
~What happened to you in 2020-2021 during the coronavirus pandemic? Do you care? Are you on a spiritual path? Do you want to heal from the horrible effects of the pandemic of 2020? Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
Lin enjoying the elephantsLarada enjoying the elephants
We visited the ABQ zoo on Thursday, July 14, 2022, an all-day affair. We left home before about 8:45 am and arrived there before 9:00 am. Here’s what we saw, and I wrote more haikus but took mostly pictures.
Map of Albuquerque Zoo
It felt so good to be back near my beloved Washington middle school, La Washa, where I taught for eight and one-half years. When I taught there, we visited the zoo annually with our students because it was within walking distance. However, it has grown so much; I felt lost most of the day.
During our visit, I found a common theme for the haikus I wrote fed by repeated signs at animal cages of species being endangered. There are seven levels of endangered species. The Red List has seven levels of conservation: least concern, near threatened, vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, extinct in the wild, and extinct. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/endangered-species
So, in viewing all these precious animals and the thought of losing them for future generations, I ended up writing about the crisis we face with endangered species:
My Haikus
Wild animals
In our ABQ zoo park
Making me aware!
Many are at risk.
Mankind’s disloyalty to
God’s priceless creatures.
Endangered species
Way too many in the zoo
Please stop the killing!
So, I’ve chosen today to do a photo collection of the animals we enjoyed so much.
Finally, I’ll end with a video that’s deceiving. As we left the lions earlier in the day, a volunteer told us to come back about 4:30 pm because they roar every day. Throughout the day, we heard people say you could hear the lion’s roar all over the zoo. How exciting! So we extended our time there and returned.
Sadly to say, in this visit, we didn’t see the polar bears. Lin kept saying, “Where can they be hiding the polar bears?”
I said, “In the freezer!” With it being a hot day over 90 degrees, they may have been somewhere cool. We also missed the penguin exhibit by just a few minutes. We plan to start our next visit with these two favorites.
I had my iPad all set up to videotape this notable event. At 4:30 pm, we settled ourselves at the lion’s habitat with several people who we had passed on the information. As if on a schedule, the male lion stirred—his massive mane flowing. Lin commented he did not know a lion’s mane was so massive.
How we first saw the lion earlier – asleep!Waking up!Look at that mane!
Then a door opened on the wall inside the habitat. First, the female lion entered, then the male followed, so I thought we missed it. But immediately the roaring began, so I videotaped it, but the video shows the platform where I thought they would be. You know—like The Lion King!
As we walked through this beautiful park, the Albuquerque’s zoo, nestled among old stately Cottonwood trees, has an allure to it—a tranquil place to enjoy a day.
Finally, we enjoyed our visit and plan another one in a month. I hate the stark truth of the demise of so many of our animals around the globe. Have you ever thought about this growing concern? Hopefully, you have now.
~WATCH MY NEW INTERVIEW on Chat & Spin Radio, from Friday, June 24, 2022. Join us for a lively description of all my books!
~MY FIRST AUDIOBOOK IS AVAILABLE: Go to Audible to buy my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story. I’m working on Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? but have gotten stalled with shingles.
~Do you listen to podcasts? Here are three podcasts with interviews about my new book & some Flippo stories:
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long! Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
~What happened to you in 2020-2021 during the coronavirus pandemic? Do you care? Are you on a spiritual path? Do you want to heal from the horrible effects of the pandemic of 2020? Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
Yes, I wrote haikus at the Albuquerque Biopark on Tuesday, July 5, 2022. Lin and I thought we’d get there on the 4th of July, specifically to see the Botanical Garden, but we didn’t make it. We have annual passes we don’t use enough, so we went on the 5th.
To provide enough time to see everything, we arrived about 9:45 AM and found the Biopark was not too busy. We hadn’t been there in a couple years, so naive, we went in the first place we saw. At first, it didn’t seem right, then pretty quickly, we realized we had mistakenly entered the Aquarium, so we continued and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Biopark’s Aquarium
As a teacher, we took our students to the Aquarium, but that was fifteen years ago. What changes they have made! First, I missed the stingray pool when you first enter and then when you’re down below; I remember eels in the enclosure that goes over your head. That used to freak me out!
Going down under, we enjoyed the big tank where we saw sharks, stingrays, and a variety of fish. It felt like a life-size aquarium. They provide seating—I could sit there for hours!
Larada with a smiling stingray in backgroundLin with a shark in background
Lunch Break
When we finished at the Biopark’s Aquarium, we decided on an early lunch or a late breakfast at the Shark Reef Café. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast burrito smothered in green chili. As we sat and watched a variety of fish swim in front of us, the haikus started.
Are you suspended?
Floating in the water now
Supported by God!
A Stingray swims by
looking like he smiles, but
it’s his underside.
In the form of a
fish, my God swims by smiling.
HIs eyes reveal joy!
Biopark’s Botanical Garden
After finishing that scrumptious burrito, we felt rejuvenated and entered the Botanical Garden, our original destination. Lin has a gorgeous garden, so he had been expecting new discoveries on this trip.
Because of my battle with post-herpetic neuralgia after shingles, I still don’t have my regular stamina, so Lin went to the Rio Grande Heritage Farm, and I sat and wrote:
I sit and wait in
A cool spot. Fatigue comes soon.
Neuralgia remains.
I am not old yet.
Shingles changed my life so much.
Now I watch, silent.
Children grace this place.
A little girl singsher song.
Inspired by God!
Butterfly Pavilion
One of my favorite sections, the Butterfly Pavilion, featured one of my favorite creatures. We saw beautiful butterflies flying around and enjoying the delicious nectar of a variety of plants. Lin and I circled the whole enclosure and visited with the butterfly expert there. Lin asked about a butterfly I photographed in his garden during the week, and he identified it for us, a swallowtail. Then I asked about the coloring of a monarch. Next, the expert whipped out his well-worn book and showed us the monarch.
Then I had an unusual experience. A monarch landed on the brim of my hat in the front. The expert exclaimed, “That’s a good omen!” As soon as he said that, another butterfly, but not a monarch, landed on my brim in the back. Lin photographed the monarch on the front, but the butterfly in the back flew off before he caught it.
Monarch on the front of my hatClose up of this amazing experience!
A monarch landed
On my hat. Good omen!
Sheer joy I couldn’t see!
Normally,
I take lots of pictures anywhere I go, but I took limited photos this time—the ones featured in this blog like this amazing brightly colored insect attached to a piece of grass.
Instead of taking tons of pictures, I wrote haikus! How can you not write a haiku after seeing the Aquarium or the Botanical Garden?
Also, here’s a suggestion when you go to the Albuquerque Biopark’s Botanical Garden or any botanical garden anywhere. Lin had an app on his iPhone named PictureThis which has a yearly subscription, but he had some issues with it. So, he switched to Seek by iNaturalist, and he reminded me I told him about it. It’s free. I had a blast using Seek on different plants to identify them—it was so easy!
Finally,
The Aquarium, Botanical Garden and Zoo make up the Biopark in Albuquerque. We have plans to visit the zoo this Thursday. Do you regularly visit your zoo, botanical garden or aquarium in your city? Tell me about yours and your experience!
~WATCH MY NEW INTERVIEW on Chat & Spin Radio, from Friday, June 24, 2022. Join us for a lively description of all my books!
~MY FIRST AUDIOBOOK IS AVAILABLE: Go to Audible to buy my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story. I’m working on Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? but have gotten stalled with shingles.
~Do you listen to podcasts? Here are three podcasts with interviews about my new book & some Flippo stories:
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long! Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
~What happened to you in 2020-2021 during the coronavirus pandemic? Do you care? Are you on a spiritual path? Do you want to heal from the horrible effects of the pandemic of 2020? Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
