9 thoughts on “”

    1. I submitted the Haiku, never expecting it be published. Reading my mind, I suspect that it was a variation of a Nicholas Virgilio haiku – Lily, out of the water, out of itself – for which he received acclaim from the Emperor of Japan at the time. I met him and attended a session in Pennsylvania , a small group setting, where he recited many of his poems, using a candle in a unlit room for a background effect. He inspired me to write haiku, but I usually only write "ku" , or minimal haiku, i.e. hiddenemyself , downwindown, onewe, and others.
      Thanks for your comment.

  1. What a lovely haiku, Martin. And perfectly timed to coincide with the full moon last night.
    As I'm sure many haiku enthusiasts know, moon-viewing has long been a major aesthetic pursuit among the Japanese, and many literary and artistic works celebrate the glories of the full moon. Although I made no poetic attempt myself last night, my son and I paused to admire it.

    What I particularly love about your poem is the pacing. Each line ends with a pause, almost a breath, which slows down the reading of the poem, and matches the slow progress of the moon rising.

    And the final word, "lifting" – an inspired (and literally "inspiring") choice!

    Wonderful poem to add to my favourites.

    Strider

  2. No self-respecting haiku writer would fail to pen at least a hundred haiku with moons during their lifetime.

    I'm not dead yet, so here's just a few:

    the moon is broken
    Battersea Power Station
    from a train window

    Alan Summers
    Award credit: 1st Prize, World Monuments Fund 2012 Haiku Contest

    first quarter moon
    dancing pinheads burst
    into new angel DNA

    Alan Summers
    Publications credits:
    Asahi Shimbun (Japan, August 2012); Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)

    falling snow moon
    the slowness of shadows
    caught in branches

    Alan Summers
    Publications credits: Presence #47 (2012)

    chestnut moon shifting in my memory ghost floors

    Alan Summers
    Publication Credits: Roadrunner 12.3 (December 2012); LAKEVIEW International Journal of Literature and Arts Vol.1, No.1 February 2013

    1. Yes, my own number of moon poems is staggering in relation to whatever my second place category may be. Just too many opportunities. I have a smaller, sub-genre of day moon poems, with the subject inevitably portrayed as the eternally out-of-place misfit:

      day moon
      I wasn't made
      for these times

      (Presence No. 47)

      S.M. Abeles

  3. Wonderful. I like how it could be the moon that lifts the ocean as well as itself.

    I wrote a French one about a moon that was reluctant to leave the sky!

    point du jour
    le mât d’un voilier donne un petit coup
    à la lune

    Gong Journal of the French Haiku Association, No. 39

    Translation

    daybreak
    the mast of a yacht
    pokes the moon

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