“Hurricane Irma Haiku”

(Watercolor, “Barred Owl”, Jane Kohut-Bartels, 1997)

 

 This was written in the Fall of 2017 during the remnants of Hurricane Irma felt in Atlanta.

Lady Nyo

=

Mighty Hurricane!

Destroys a summer landscape

Pine trees recumbent.

—

No moon shone last night

This morning the sun shines bright

Maple leaves glowing!

—

Generators growl

Crickets increase their fiddling

There is no sleep now.

—

The total darkness

Moon too thin to fatten road

Disturbs our courage.

—

Somehow not dead yet

Last night’s torrential lashings

Morning….heart still beats.

—

Cedars fan the moon

Fierce winds come from the East

Blow evil to west.

—

Looters try their luck

Shotguns loaded by the door

Death inside and out.

—

Hungry hummingbird

Pushed by mighty gale from food

Determined to eat.

—

A soaked stray kitten

Wants the warmth of my dry lap

Rain gusts don’t play fair.

—

Rooster doesn’t crow

Night’s loud thunder and lightning

Ruins his morning voice.

—

Even the hoot owls

Are silent this stormy night

Wind muffles their cries.

—

Leaves, branches, litter

Torrential rains wash them gone-

Did they ever exist?

 

Jane Kohut-Bartels

Copyrighted, 2017

 

Thanks to Irma, power was out for 50 some hours. Couldn’t sleep, so Basho’s “Interior Road” drew me downstairs. Basho talks about direct impressions…don’t worry about ‘proper’ form. You can go back and reform later. He himself forgot the ‘seasonal word’ in a number of his haiku, and said so. I decided to write these ‘haiku’ from immediate thoughts and sensations, without much struggle as to ‘what and what’. Though it is right and proper to use kigo, etc.

Jane Kohut-Bartels

Copyrighted, 2017