Feb. 1

In a recent book review over on his blog Another Lost Shark, Australian poet Graham Nunn made the comment that he has "had a real 'haiku-headspace' of late." I imagine haiku poets reading that will have an idea of what he means -- and I wish I could say the same for myself recently. For months this blog kept me in that headspace as I stuck to the daily routine of posting. A missed post here and there broke the routine, though, which turned into more frequent missed posts and finally a month-long (or so) absence. With the routine broken, so has the spell been.

The 'haiku-headspace' does often feel to me like a kind of spell or enchantment. While you're in it, the things of the outside world are imbued with an extra significance that inspires a need to describe them, to capture them as best you can in words -- plain words, but words that hopefully glow in the same way that the plain things that inspired them do.

So I'll be working my way back into it, getting back into the routine of daily posts. Not always haiku but other short poems, too, and simple observations/experiments. We'll see what comes about.

First, some words in honor of haiku writer's block...:



smell of gasoline
or a solvent
some chemical
I don't know

raucous chorus of hundreds
robins chickadees sparrows wrens and others
unknown

soft fur already
of star magnolia buds
not recognizing
warm January

and the words that fail
utterly
to touch
any of it