Through the eyes of a child

tossed by gusts of wind

harlequin leaves swirl and dance

a sky full of kites

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

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My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille September 7th 2016 tribute to Jane Reichhold

This week it’s time (again) for haiku, the smallest and most complex poetry form, which Chèvrefeuille identifies as an opportunity to share our deepest thoughts and feelings in the simplest words divided over three lines – or one line, as in the classical haiku. He has introduced us to Jane Reichhold’s Writing and Enjoying Haiku, a hands-on guide to writing haiku, in which one important rule is simplicity: saying it as it is. Or as Basho once said: “Learn from the pine about the pine”.

Chèvrefeuille has asked us to look around, ‘investigate’ our environment and our neighbourhoods, and learn from them: see the world around us as children, as if we see it for the very first time and enjoy it, using all of our senses to bring the joy of a child, that simplicity, into our haiku.