The Littlest Poems

I love to read Haiku. The idea is to capture the essence, actually the feeling, of something in just a few words.

Some of them are timeless, as is this one by the Japanese poet Gomei:

One chestnut, only one,
Is all his tiny hands can hold,
My little baby son. (Gomei)

We were on a vacation to New Hampshire, and we stopped at a used book store. A book really kept calling to me, Little Pictures of Japan. It had Haiku poems illustrated for young children. I loved the little poems and the pictures. I often look at this book.

Energetically, Haiku holds a very high vibration – after all, it’s the essence of good, happy things.

Some Haiku poems are very intimate vignettes. Here is one by the great Japanese poet Basho:

The old pond – aye!
A frog leapt into it, -
List, the water sound! (Basho)

But it’s just as much fun to make them up yourself.
I like to make up Haiku, my own way. Yes, there are rules for writing Haiku, but I ignore them all. I just write one or two lines that are really beautiful. In a way, it’s like tweeting mindfully:

A new day.
Cricket on the porch.
Oatmeal on the stove.

Perhaps you would like to make one of these littlest poems, too – just a handful of words.