Haiku Haiku
haiku moment —
most pure
before words form
swallowing cherry blossoms…
will I compose haiku
with a japanese heart?
loon skimming still lake
above its own image —
wordless poem
soul of the poet
soul of the Friend
rice paper waiting for the brush
[note: Friend is the formal term for a Quaker]
a canoe
a haiku
each floating on reflection
Spirit Haiku
journeying through
the heart of god —
our paddles silently dip and swing
climbing the mountain trail
I hear echoes
of footsteps not yet taken
I see machu picchu … and
the stones turn to blood
and rush through my veins
fog steals up from behind
startles me
then holds me in its arms
her heart soars like a midnight loon…
calling, calling
each quivering soul
swirling along the winding path
leaves and breezes . . .
yet where to? where from?
stones of the old monk’s floor,
worn smooth but never cold —
his feet afire…
Charles David Kleymeyer graduated from Stanford University in Creative Writing, earned a doctorate in Sociology of International Development at the University of Wisconsin, worked in grassroots development in the Andes for 45 years, and is now a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Support of Native Lands. He is a Quaker pacifist, environmentalist, fiction/non-fiction writer, and performing storyteller. Kleymeyer has published five books, plus several dozen short stories and articles, and an award-winning historical spirit-quest novel about the New Testament saga (www.YeshuNovel.net). He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and daughter and has two adult offspring, as well. He has been writing haiku and exploring Buddhism for more than five decades.
Image by BrieCollette – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51132152