Haiku

When we visited Ireland in 2019, we passed a sign directing us to the town of Limerick, the ground zero of the short form poems that seemed to be the easiest poems to remember when I was a kid. We didn't actually visit Limerick on that trip, but the sign inspired me to write my own version of the town's eponymous poem. It seemed like a fun thing to do at the time.

So now it's 2025 and we've just returned from our second real vacation to Japan. Like Ireland, Japan is also an origin point for a short form of poetry: the haiku. I figured since I delved into poetry six or so years ago, why not do it again this year. If I was inspired by Ireland to write a poem, I pretty much have to be by Japan, which is one of my favorite travel destinations ever (read: way more than Ireland).

Can I squeeze some history in? Which is older? Limerick or haiku? Without looking, I'd have for sure gone with the haiku and it wouldn't have been anywhere close. I just feel Japan is a much more culturally ancient place than Ireland. As it turns out, I am right, but only by about 50 years or so and the name "haiku" dates from the 19th century, later than the limerick was called a limerick. Take that for what it's worth, which is probably pretty much nothing. 

Before I get to my 2025 haiku about the Land of the Rising Sun, let me say two things. First, and in case you didn't know, a haiku is a three-line, unrhymed, often nature-inspired poem featuring five syllables in the first and third lines and seven in the second. I may be Americanizing this rhythm of the haiku because the Japanese language may not recognize quite the equivalent of western language syllables, but it's close enough for this amateur attempt.

Second, this is not the first haiku I have written. I wrote my first in sixth grade and I still remember it to this day. Not because it was especially notable or inspiring but because it was super, super, super simple. Although oddly...completely consistent with the idiom. For posterity's sake, here's my haiku attempt as an 11 year old.

hop hop hop hop hop 

hop hop hop hop hop hop hop 

hop here comes a frog

It's awesome, right? I wanted to clear that low bar this year with my Japan haiku attempt. I hope I succeeded. Read on to judge.

This trip to Japan was very much centered around the annual celebration of the blooming of the sakura or cherry blossom flowers. We deliberately picked that springtime event as the cornerstone and dominant theme of this trip. We spent way more energy and time seeking out sakura sites than we did doing anything else over there. If there's any doubt of our focus on this theme, check out my 31 picture post on this subject from last week.

So if I'm going to sit down and write a nature-themed traditional Japanese poem, it has to be about the sakura, right? Right!

I did Ireland one better and wrote two.

This weeklong trip was very much a tale of two half weeks. The first half of our time in Tokyo was spent in rainy cold weather being frustrated about the lack of glorious sakura sightings. So by mid-week during afternoon tea time at the Grand Hyatt lounge, I'd come up with a framework of the following haiku (which admittedly I finished at home).

Late blossom, drops fall 

Cold winds resist patient spring

Pink blooms crave warm sun

Then the weather turned and we got three (OK, maybe two and a half...) glorious days of sunshine, which opened up the sakura blossoms and inspired a good number of Tokyo-ites to find their blankets or blue tarps at home and head out for hanami time, meaning eating and (for sure) drinking with friends below the cherry blossoms in the sunny morning and afternoon and maybe early evening. It's a rite of spring all over Japan. Some more time in the Grand Hyatt lounge inspired me to write the following.

Gray winter closes

Pink blooms heed warm April's call

Blue tarps now rejoice!

So that's it. That's the whole post. Doing something like this to be creative every once in a while is fun and if it comes with free food and drink at a hotel lounge, then I'm all for this sort of stuff. Back to our regularly scheduled programming soon.