(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
