Saturday 20 November 2010

Existential Haikus

“Who am I?” she asked.
“Who am I?”, the echo answered,
And she understood.

“What is my purpose?”
“Purpose, purpose,” came the echo,
To infinity.

A thousand sunbeams
Lit her face and reminded her
Of nature's answer.


She smiled and smiling,
Awoke to what she always knew
And blessed her echo.

Her echo saw her
And being her true reflection
Made a silent wish.


What became of her?
No-one knows, but her quiet prayer
Echoes through her smile.


When you see that smile, 
You too will be reminded to
Wrap the world in joy.

 
—okei
__________________________
The image is "Woman in front of the Setting Sun" by Caspar David Friedrich.

17 comments:

  1. seasons fleeting
    snow ice rain drought
    dreaming of paradise
    I am just learning to do haiku. I hope you like it.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You do the spirit of the haiku very nicely.

    I stick to a very formal structure. A haiku is supposed to be 5 syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third, but I didn't know that when I first started writing them. I used to use 5 in the first line, 8 in the second line and 5 in the third, which I call "hachikus" ... my made-up word, because hachi is Japanese for 8! So, here I'm going back to my "wrong-haikus" or hachikus.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You probably understand my own poetry better than me. ;^)

    ReplyDelete
  4. And thank you also Ingrid, Erika for dropping by. Always welcome!

    And great to see you back, Tamara!

    ReplyDelete
  5. thank you Okei
    It's good to see you too.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Haiku is very hard to do. Congratulations.

    ReplyDelete
  7. How do these always seem to make so much sense? Is it magic?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you Marie! Delighted to see you. :)

    But the "idea" is much harder than the "form", especially when one is scrambling in the dark not knowing exactly how it must be to experience this awakening. The closest I can get to understanding it is a smiling blessing and a silent prayer.

    Rose, it makes sense? I'm thrilled, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Makes sense? You should be published.
    All of your haikus are very profound.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Big smiles. :^)

    The first two hachikus were written last year, the rest were written yesterday. Then, when I found the picture (which I just had to choose, because I remembered it as the cover image of Jean Klein's "Who am I?") I made a few more changes. "Moonbeams" became "sunbeams" and that verse was changed to fit, etc.

    Still, it doesn't make 100% sense to me, but that's a good thing. If it made complete sense, I wouldn't have needed to write it, lol. Writing is a process of discovery. But... that it makes sense to you, and has resonated with others also is totally thrilling.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Maybe one day. ;^) But you know, in the meantime I'm publishing *instantly* to a freely available online journal called "okei's Site" that always accepts my contributions, almost always gives me encouragement, and sometimes even gives me great feedback! How cool is that?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oooooh, my dude is surely a Haikus Master now.

    "When you see that smile,
    You too will be reminded to
    Wrap the world in joy." --

    This is great! Like this part most.

    Happy Thanksgiving, Okei!

    ReplyDelete