"Creativity is intelligence having fun." Albert Einstein
After posting my small book of eight haiku ten days ago, I set my mind to conjure up a few more. I have stayed with the three line structure of 5-7-5 morae [sound units], which are commonly misinterpreted as "syllables" in English. How well I remember an English teacher in high school drumming that pattern into our grey matter. Modern English speaking haikuists [I made that up] go in for 10 to 14 sound units in three lines to capture the brevity of the traditional Japanese haiku. Writers/artists can do whatever they want these days.
Is Spring awaking
or just a hint of fragrance
lingering at dawn?
Winter: a bleak time
made bearable by firelight
and Grandma's old quilt.
Circles are magic
creatures of degrees: like squares
or two triangles.
For years, I have been intrigued, and some what enamored, with the curious phenomenon known as the collective noun. Where such curiosities as a garrison of gophers, a twangle of harps, or a court of kangaroos originated gives pause for thought. Years ago, I wrote an article about a Utah educational librarian conference and titled it, "A Shush of Librarians." Hence, the next four haiku feature collective nouns, the fourth being inspired by the Congress of the US of A.
A murder of crows
in bare, black trees commanding
the dusk to depart.
On a wet fence rail
a tittering of magpies
discusses the rain.
A charm of fairies
sings in my garden
at appointed hours.
A pratfall of clowns
is not an invitation
to sanely converse.
