falling

It can be difficult to fit current events or human history into haiku. Sometimes it seems antithetical to the haiku spirit, which is so often associated with the observation of Nature with a capital 'N'. I have to remind myself that even Basho himself evoked historical events and figures in his work.

For the anniversary of the attacks of September 11th, here's an understated haiku by my friend Alan Mitchell. It is simple and direct if you read it with the context of Sept. 11th in mind. Without that context, it could speak to any number of events or situations, historical or Natural. An empire, a leaf, an aspiration or a glance. It could fit them all:


falling
falling

fallen