Haibun: Making Art

When writing the haiku below, I kept tinkering with the end of the middle line. Finally, I decided to repeat the word “with” with the very next word. So I sat with it again. I knew I loved the pause the repetition gives, the rhythm it brings, yet I feared others might not like me repeating the same word in something so dense and efficient as a haiku.

But, as you can see, I went with it.

And as I sat with this edit for a day to decide if I would go with it, I thought about this holiday season and about the tension from it. We are in the midst of a global pandemic and almost every government has their rules and guidelines for people gathering. Yet, this is the time of year when many of us get together—a cadence or rhythm we find delightful, appropriate—and we want to repeat these traditions. The tension is real. And in this tension, we need to decide what we each should do.

The only thing I can say is, look at your choices, sit with it, and then make the most beautiful decision you can. Figure out where you stand, and from there, choose to make art with what you have. And if the world doesn’t like your choice, or my choice of repeating the word “with,” that’s their problem, not mine, not yours.

I made art today, your turn!

left from the wildfires

black branch expires; yet with,

with fall’s desire