Haiku: Staring at the screen…

Staring at the screen…
Wait, what was I just thinking?
Sleep deprivation.

Mountains, Yum

I’ve had a love of haiku poetry for as long as I can remember. Back in the 90′s I had a popular (among my friends) and controversial (relatively speaking) web site dedicated to haiku, and I miss it.

My sister, who shares my haiku fever (incidentally, the former web site’s name), sent me a book of Zen Haiku by Santoka Taneda, translated into English. He was a dude who decided to give up everything in his life to pursue a Zen lifestyle, wrote a bunch of “freestyle” haiku (not necessarily conforming to the 5-7-5 rule), became a zen priest while wandering around on foot begging, then basically copped to being an alcoholic and a zen poseur. Reading his story in two line snippets is kind of profound.

A few haiku from one of my favorite pages:

The few flies that remain
Seem to remember me.

(My favorite hot spring–)
Bathing alone,
Sleeping alone.

The small Buddha statue:
Rained on for the sake of human beings.

And of course, there are a few that probably didn’t survive the translation. Either that or I just don’t get it…

The newlyweds’ home is complete:
A new bucket.

So I’ve been inspired to compose more narrative haiku. We’ll see if I can do one every day for a week, starting with one explaining why I’m up writing this post:

No explanation
Body was cold, but felt hot
Insomniac writes

Kampai!

Moxa is popular among young people!

a couple years ago, at the recommendation of my sister, acupuncturist and moxibustion enthusiast, i got into burning moxa to help with pain. i use pre-packaged moxa; just stick and burn.

i usually use moxa on my arms:

trying a new insomnia therapy:

it’s a little tricky to pull off, and i think i need to give myself a strong pedicure before i’ll feel the full effect. but i do enjoy the effects of moxa, if not for the thrill of applying burning stickers to myself, then for the marijuana-esque aroma that has passersby wondering, “where’s the party?”

you can find moxa at alternative medicine and Asian markets. highly recommended!