"as if mending socks, I repair my mind"

modern haiku

Marble female figure, Cycladic, 2700–2600 BCE

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Duro Jaiye

spring rain—
milk in her left breast
unexpectedly sweeter 

Peggy Willis Lyles

the numbness
of scar tissue—
forsythia

Fay Aoyagi 

Independence Day—
I let him touch
a little bit of me

Carol Purington

Logging road—
          the pileated woodpecker
                    flings its cry ahead

Yoshino Yoshiko 

as if mending
socks, I repair my mind
and live on

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Creative Invitation

Haiku can be called "unfinished" poems: each spare haiku invites the reader to finish it in their mind and heart, to bring the meaning.

One of my favorite books is Japanese Death Poems—Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death. Here is a free pdf of the book for your enjoyment.

Japanese, originally a pictographic language, uses characters to represent things and ideas visually instead of letters forming words.

Write a haiku that’s entirely visual, describing the world you see, a moment in nature, or a single image, in three lines. Don’t worry about syllable count. Bring the fleeting moment alive.