Last night, as I was finally relaxing enough to drift off to sleep and my mind was starting to wander towards dreamland, the first line of a Haiku came to me. "Grey dove flying, dips her wing". I counted out the syllables...hmm, it works. But I didn't like the "flying" so I changed it to "soaring". I had a lovely picture of it in my mind...a beautiful visual of a dove, floating through the air, dipping her wing in greeting...then she dipped her wing and ever so lightly touched the surface of a pond, sending ripples out in ever wider rings...and I thought, there is my second line!
So, after awhile I came up with a couple possibilities for the second line, but then I realized I had almost forgotten the first line, so I decided to get up. I went downstairs and wrote out my first line then played with the second line...I saw orangy colored fish rising to the surface of the pond, their fishy lips gobbling insects and creating those same concentric circles of water. I wanted my last line to start "my heart..." but, that was just not working out. Everything I wrote sounded sucky or dramatic. Finally, I was happy with this:
Grey dove soaring, dips her wing
Koi rise to surface
Shade my eyes, to think of you
I am no Basho. But I like it. I feel that it was worth getting out of bed wo write, even if no one else ever sees it. I think Basho would like the attitude, if not the amateurish poetry.
P.S. When I got back into bed my husband said "what is it? Are you okay?" When I told him why I got up he kinda laughed. he thinks I'm a nutbar, I think. S'alright. :)
