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“A haiku is not a poem, it is not literature; it is a hand beckoning, a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way of returning to nature, to our moon nature, our cherry blossom nature, our falling leaf nature, in short, to our Buddha nature.” - R.H. Blyth

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February 1, 2017 daily writing prompt: HAIKU (write a serious haiku ABOUT haiku, which is hard to do well).

at Izumo
we survive with Borges
on haiku
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February 2, 2017 daily writing prompt: IS (write about existence itself, or the existence of something, but don’t use the word “is” in your poem).

I am now
in your third person
also present
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February 3, 2017 daily writing prompt: A (yes, just this letter of the alphabet—where will it take you? a what? or something starting with a?).

just a bird . . .
the indefinite article
obscures this wren
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February 4, 2017 daily writing prompt: HAND.

helping hands
on a huddled child . . .
desert storm
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February 5, 2017 daily writing prompt: BECKONING.

wind willows
"come hither" along
the stream
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February 6, 2017 daily writing prompt: A DOOR.

a door ring . . .
my apotheosis
in its sound
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February 7, 2017 daily writing prompt: HALF.

radiant
the moon sheds
a half life
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February 8, 2017 daily writing prompt: OPENED.

wind scent
a half-opened rose
whiplashed
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February 9, 2017 daily writing prompt: A MIRROR.

sewer pond —
the mirror clears for
a fourth turning
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February 10, 2017 daily writing prompt: WIPED.

face to face
with pine and bamboo
minds wiped clean
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February 11, 2017 daily writing prompt: CLEAN.

my reflection
clean-shaven in the dew
when life was spring
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February 12, 2017 daily writing prompt: IT (use this word in your poem, but try not to say what “it” is).

pine lesson
it is what
it is not

it lessens
its meaning
over time

all at sea —
it drifts without
a context

old it—
an it jumps in
the it of it

something is
without a reference
to fill it

it fades
over the time
it takes
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February 13, 2017 daily writing prompt: IS (use this specific word in your poem, but try to be wary of introducing too much judgment into the poem).

grassy field
vibrant with
wind's isness
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February 14, 2017 daily writing prompt: A WAY OF (either fill in a word after “of” or write a poem about a “way” of some kind).

tomb echo —
a way of hearing
her silence
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February 15, 2017 daily writing prompt: RETURNING TO (what have you often returned to in life, or would you like to return to?).

summer sloth
a dog returns to
its own vomit
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February 16, 2017 daily writing prompt: NATURE (write about something natural rather than human-made that you can see right now).

dawn
as never seen
before
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February 17, 2017 daily writing prompt: MOON.

all this and still Murtha's moon
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February 18, 2017 daily writing prompt: NATURE (again, but something you’ve experienced in another season rather than this one).

balmy night
my spirit yields to
its moon nature
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February 19, 2017 daily writing prompt: CHERRY BLOSSOM (also, the submission period for this year’s Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational runs from March 1 to June 1).

bored to death
with cherry blossoms
Issa's snail

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February 20, 2017 daily writing prompt: NATURE (yet again, but this time think of something seasonal that’s unique or special where you live).

stones sweat out
incessant cicadas
summer coda
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February 21, 2017 daily writing prompt: FALLING.

future falling
wind and water follow
a parting leaf
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February 22, 2017 daily writing prompt: LEAF.

a sleeping dog
drools a leaf
at the end of summer
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February 23, 2017 daily writing prompt: NATURE (once more, but think of human nature this time)

true to my nature
I craft haiku that wane
with this month's moon
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February 24, 2017 daily writing prompt: IN SHORT (write a very brief/minimal haiku).

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February 25, 2017 daily writing prompt: TO (write a poem in which you use the word “to”).

to go back
to the beginning
the moon also wanes
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February 26, 2017 daily writing prompt: OUR (our what? see where that will take you, and try to use “our” in your poem).

hour by hour
fossilence
becoming ours
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February 27, 2017 daily writing prompt: BUDDHA.

summer cools . . .
all the dead Buddhas
left outside
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February 28, 2017 daily writing prompt: NATURE (yet again—whatever you want to write about from the natural word, and try to keep it a pure-nature poem).

sultry sun
a last dragon cloud
wisps away
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all day long
Lake Ratapiko laps
a summer lament

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shrove tuesday
my whakapapa stacked
against me

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no moon tonight
for my words to muse on
bare-faced death

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just an apple
scored
beneath a tree

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all about
tundra
defrosting

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finale — 
the wind mumbles on
about bees

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the slow swell
of ripeness into
feijoas

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just this once
and no other

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acid reign
morphing words into
the one ring

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star-gazing
within Salome's
seven veils

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birth cry
the silence around
these words

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quiet now
flesh felt scent
aquiver

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morning light
is my awakening
again stillborn

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still unborn
the weight of light
in his coffin

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trailing off
in a whisper of wish
summer clouds

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breathing out
words of consecration
breathed out

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all the words
ever uttered
tidal flats

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toon world . . .
Mickey and Donald
take the cake

(post US Trump/Pence inauguration)

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dark is life
dark is death
das lied
von der erde

(after Gustav Mahler)