I have a penchant for haiku, the Japanese poetry form. Here are a few that I have composed over the past few years.
This one came to me while I was walking to class one September a few years back. I was on UT's South Mall near the Tower, walking under a large Live Oak tree. I was then struck on the head by an acorn and the haiku appeared in my mind completely formed!
Acorn, what is your
Destiny? "To strike you on
your head," he replies.
Over the summer of that same year, I was fond of some flowers in my mother's back yard.
A Ranunculus
Leaning t'ward the rosemary -
Or is it the sun?
In July of 2002, while walking Finley in the early morning, this caught my eye:
Early morning moon
Rising through the two last leaves.
A dead redbud tree.
One morning in April while going to Cha Yon Ryu, I was contemplating samsara.
A crunch underfoot -
Do snails escape life and death
In the dark morning?
This is a departure out of my normal and traditional 5-7-5 syllable count from March 1, 2003...
Overnight sleet
Slicken city sidewalks.
A dead robin.
That is not to say that I don't also enjoy poetry in its many other forms. When I was at the University of Texas at Austin, I worked on a project related to William Carlos Williams.
Ode to Passing Autumn Leaves, a short poem I composed while walking home from work in December, 2002.
Here is a poem about the Southern path. This verse is modeled after the Chinese style of poetry prevalent in some Buddhist texts (translated into English).
Copyright © 1997-2002 Jason Crickmer.
You are granted permission to copy and distribute these poems to your heart's content, as long as the author is credited.