Haiku from the ‘Hood

 

3/16/21

In addition to being a sumi painter, my mother was a haiku poet. As a traditional homemaker, she spent most of her time at home. Sometimes when her well of haiku ideas ran dry, she complained that it was because she hadn’t gone out that week. Then she would go shopping or run another mundane errand, and when she returned, inevitably she would say that she had gotten an idea for a haiku (which she would then quickly scribble into her notebook).

She didn’t need much for inspiration – her brief poems were often about ordinary matters made extraordinary by her observations – but getting out of the house was enough to make her see the mundane anew.

I know how my mom felt. My regular walks around the neighborhood are hardly “inspiring,” yet walking out the door is usually all I need to keep scribbling visual haiku in my sketchbook.

3/11/21

3/19/21