I love crows and it's wonderful they are in so many different countries. :-)
It was at the time of a great life-threatening invisible illness, and I was on an art course feeling very vulnerable. I went for a long walk during the lunch break and this crow just stayed with me in a very dark time, giving me company, solace, and hope.
They've always been a wonderful bird to me, so companionable and yet this one particular crow, not the few others near by, that went the extra mile and empathised with me.
I've had this privilege just a few times in my life with animals. This is my way of thanking that crow, and all the other animals during my life that connected with me. I become very humbled, and that's healthy.
Most of my haiku come from direct experience, and I'm glad this is working for readers.
I wasn't sure because there appears to be a strong notion around crows (centuries and centuries old) that they are bad creatures and omens of ill things to come. They are far more than that, with their witty and intelligent behaviour. :-)
Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
– Macbeth
Thank goodness for rooky woods everywhere though, and the companionship that crows give to the world, and as part of a team of caretakers, especially when humans create so much mess.
:-)
I read this first thing this morning and it has been with me all day. An excellent example of the sheer power that can be captured in the tiniest of poems. It is haiku like this one that drew me into the haiku world, and it is haiku like this one that keeps me here, yearning to write . . . haiku like this one. Big smiles, Alan – a jewel!
Just that first sentence blew me away, thank you! :-)
And then I read another sentence and another one.
I am over the moon that this haiku has worked, given the subject of crows, and that the Tiny Words editors accepted it. It just keeps reminding me that editors can do so much for a writer, and for readers.
It's why I keep coming back to Tiny Words, not just to submit my own work, but be able to comment on so many varied and wonderful works here.
Your comments are so kind, and encouraging, especially as it's another dark time for me, but not my own personal health this time.
A friend, who has written and published haku, but is rather literal-minded wrote me about this haiku:
I have no idea what this means. How are crows comforting? Maybe if the poet used his other 10 syllables he could tell us.
I replied:
Paraphraseable content
Crushing winter storm.
She replied:
I think I'm finally beginning to get this. The crows are comforted, not comforting?
I replied:
For me, yes, the crows are comforted, and comforting -; they are also the dark news -; they are the messengers of death carrying
irony in their beaks -; they are the drones of Wotan -;they hover in the sky like black clouds -; they call to mind Macbeth,
They are all those things together & more. That’s the poignancy .
It's been surprising but quite a few women, (poets and non-poets), have told me that they find crows comforting.
I just think of crows as part of a huge caretaker crew for tidying up the planet, which with human consumption, has increased somewhat. :-)
The dark news could be any dark news we receive, whether family, friends, the news of constant conflict reported or spun via TV and rest of the media, or something personal.
That morning as I prepared to leave for another city, for an Arts course, I was throwing up blood when I had a shower.
Before I phoned my wife, during the Arts Business lunch break, I felt very alone, and although I've accepted death before in moments of danger, I was very sad, as I wasn't enjoying the arts course, and felt isolated.
Sometimes it takes a creature that isn't human, and not one of the obvious creatures, like a dog for example, to share some empathy. Crows are extremely intelligent, and have a sense of humor which can double as sensitivity in some creatures.
See: Crow Country by Mark Cocker (ISBN: 9780224076012)
For some reason, despite perhaps half a dozen crows around, on the patch of green by the city council's building, just going on pecking at the grass, this lone crow just kept close. I experienced company, and great comfort, from this single crow, and I didn't feel alone and isolated as much.
This gave me the courage to phone my wife, who told me to get to see a doctor ASAP and made an appointment. Oddly enough the first doctor didn't do much, but the next day the second doctor, almost breaking into a sweat, immediately put me onto medication. I had a lift-threatening illness that in itself is also a sign of something else too.
After a few months I was completely clear (October 2014) but I've never forgotten the comfort of crows.
I've just been given permission to post up onto my Area 17 blog about the remarks made by a published haiku and renku writer, and her Aunt, who isn't a poet but loves crows, how it comforted them that day they saw this haiku go up.
I am fascinated by this haiku though I don’t really understand it very thoroughly. I had pet jackdaws as a child and still feel an affinity with the crow family. This haiku helps me revisit this experience.
—ALAN SUMMERS
.
Due to an amazing email exchange I will be posting this up onto my Area 17 blog next week. I hope that might help.
.
I don't know if you looked at my previous replies, but basically it was a very dark time for me after coughing up blood, expecting to have something terminal.
.
I was a participant in an arts business course that I wasn't enjoying, and feeling isolated. Something I don't like happen to others when I'm running art events.
.
I went out for a lunch break, wandering around, near the green by the city council building (that has unicorns on its roof), and a crow, one in particular, singled me out, and accompanied me, kept close.
.
I genuinely felt moved and comforted, and my burden was lightened. I decided to phone my wife, who immediately told me to get home and go straight to the doctors.
.
I had treatment and recovered later last year.
.
warm regards,
Alan
—ALAN SUMMERS
.
Due to an amazing email exchange I will be posting this up onto my Area 17 blog next week. I hope that might help.
.
I don't know if you looked at my previous replies, but basically it was a very dark time for me after coughing up blood, expecting to have something terminal.
.
I was a participant in an arts business course that I wasn't enjoying, and feeling isolated. Something I don't like happen to others when I'm running art events.
.
I went out for a lunch break, wandering around, near the green by the city council building (that has unicorns on its roof), and a crow, one in particular, singled me out, and accompanied me, kept close.
.
I genuinely felt moved and comforted, and my burden was lightened. I decided to phone my wife, who immediately told me to get home and go straight to the doctors.
.
I had treatment and recovered later last year.
.
warm regards,
Alan,
Crows are like people, there are shades all the way from light to dark. Crows are also the caretakers of the planet, unlike humans, and sometimes the less pretty species are the ones that look after things better.
Though I would have to say that the crow family is beautiful, and just like other caretakers, we will always need them.
March 31st, 2015 at 9:22 am
Oh, wow – as another crow lover, I really like this one, Alan!
marion
April 1st, 2015 at 12:42 am
Thanks Marion! :-)
I'm delighted you connected with this haiku as it's so different in tone from most haiku that involve crows.
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 10:05 am
When I was in Japan, I started to feel right at home when I heard the crows
April 1st, 2015 at 12:41 am
Hi Alexis,
Yes, crows are big in Japan! I didn't see many other types of birds on the quick coach drive with NHK, but I always saw crows. :-)
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 10:15 am
Comfort of a warning or a blessing? Love this Alan, the alliteration, the sparse syllables, the magic.
April 1st, 2015 at 12:30 am
Hi Mary,
I love crows and it's wonderful they are in so many different countries. :-)
It was at the time of a great life-threatening invisible illness, and I was on an art course feeling very vulnerable. I went for a long walk during the lunch break and this crow just stayed with me in a very dark time, giving me company, solace, and hope.
They've always been a wonderful bird to me, so companionable and yet this one particular crow, not the few others near by, that went the extra mile and empathised with me.
I've had this privilege just a few times in my life with animals. This is my way of thanking that crow, and all the other animals during my life that connected with me. I become very humbled, and that's healthy.
warmest regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 10:28 am
I find myself turning this one over and over, seeing different ways of interpreting it. Yet is is so concise and direct, too. Love it.
April 1st, 2015 at 12:48 am
Thanks Sheila! :-)
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 11:01 am
A stark and interesting work, Alan…
April 1st, 2015 at 12:39 am
Thanks Andrea!
Most of my haiku come from direct experience, and I'm glad this is working for readers.
I wasn't sure because there appears to be a strong notion around crows (centuries and centuries old) that they are bad creatures and omens of ill things to come. They are far more than that, with their witty and intelligent behaviour. :-)
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 11:47 am
Very nice Alan! Comforting, in a chilling kind of way.
April 1st, 2015 at 12:48 am
Thanks Peggy :-)
It's a blessing we have crows, part of a large caretaker group of animals clearing up after humans in particular. :-)
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 12:19 pm
Good one, Alan
April 1st, 2015 at 12:37 am
Glad to hear that. :-)
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 2:47 pm
Ubiquitous crows restoring normality is comforting. Beautiful in its simplicity.
April 1st, 2015 at 12:36 am
Thank you, and yes, crows work in partnership with life and this planet, and give delight with their humor too. :-)
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Fine work, Alan. You find new depths, which are also heights, in "comfort"
Bill Kenney
April 1st, 2015 at 12:31 am
Thank you Bill, I deeply appreciate your comment here, and on so many haiku of mine over the years.
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 7:14 pm
A brilliant art-of-words. The haiku unveils many layers of meaning.
April 1st, 2015 at 12:47 am
Thank you! :-)
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 9:54 pm
Good work, the intimate tangle of things.
Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
– Macbeth
April 1st, 2015 at 12:46 am
That Shakespeare knew his words. :-)
Thank goodness for rooky woods everywhere though, and the companionship that crows give to the world, and as part of a team of caretakers, especially when humans create so much mess.
:-)
warm regards,
Alan
April 1st, 2015 at 5:31 am
And thanks so the quote, and allusion, my wife especially appreciated that extra touch.
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 10:29 pm
I read this first thing this morning and it has been with me all day. An excellent example of the sheer power that can be captured in the tiniest of poems. It is haiku like this one that drew me into the haiku world, and it is haiku like this one that keeps me here, yearning to write . . . haiku like this one. Big smiles, Alan – a jewel!
April 1st, 2015 at 12:45 am
Hi Billie! :-)
Just that first sentence blew me away, thank you! :-)
And then I read another sentence and another one.
I am over the moon that this haiku has worked, given the subject of crows, and that the Tiny Words editors accepted it. It just keeps reminding me that editors can do so much for a writer, and for readers.
It's why I keep coming back to Tiny Words, not just to submit my own work, but be able to comment on so many varied and wonderful works here.
Your comments are so kind, and encouraging, especially as it's another dark time for me, but not my own personal health this time.
warm regards,
Alan
March 31st, 2015 at 11:54 pm
Simply stunning! Love it!
April 1st, 2015 at 12:42 am
Wow, thank you! :-)
warm regards,
Alan
April 1st, 2015 at 12:40 am
I'm delighted you had a similar experience and could immediately relate.
Comfort can come from the most unexpected of places.
warm regards,
Alan
April 1st, 2015 at 4:38 am
in this dark world only the poet's levity left
April 1st, 2015 at 5:31 am
…and haiku (and senryu too) helps so much in particular. :-)
April 1st, 2015 at 8:25 am
Love it, Alan.
April 1st, 2015 at 10:05 am
Thanks Helen! :-)
warmest regards,
Alan
April 1st, 2015 at 1:01 pm
Stunning, Alan.
April 1st, 2015 at 1:03 pm
Thanks Norah! :-)
April 5th, 2015 at 1:44 am
A fine example of finding just enough words to encapsulate the content!
April 5th, 2015 at 4:45 am
Thank you so much!
warmest regards,
Alan
April 5th, 2015 at 4:06 pm
A friend, who has written and published haku, but is rather literal-minded wrote me about this haiku:
I have no idea what this means. How are crows comforting? Maybe if the poet used his other 10 syllables he could tell us.
I replied:
Paraphraseable content
Crushing winter storm.
She replied:
I think I'm finally beginning to get this. The crows are comforted, not comforting?
I replied:
For me, yes, the crows are comforted, and comforting -; they are also the dark news -; they are the messengers of death carrying
irony in their beaks -; they are the drones of Wotan -;they hover in the sky like black clouds -; they call to mind Macbeth,
They are all those things together & more. That’s the poignancy .
April 6th, 2015 at 1:02 am
Hi Dirk,
It's been surprising but quite a few women, (poets and non-poets), have told me that they find crows comforting.
I just think of crows as part of a huge caretaker crew for tidying up the planet, which with human consumption, has increased somewhat. :-)
The dark news could be any dark news we receive, whether family, friends, the news of constant conflict reported or spun via TV and rest of the media, or something personal.
That morning as I prepared to leave for another city, for an Arts course, I was throwing up blood when I had a shower.
Before I phoned my wife, during the Arts Business lunch break, I felt very alone, and although I've accepted death before in moments of danger, I was very sad, as I wasn't enjoying the arts course, and felt isolated.
Sometimes it takes a creature that isn't human, and not one of the obvious creatures, like a dog for example, to share some empathy. Crows are extremely intelligent, and have a sense of humor which can double as sensitivity in some creatures.
See: Crow Country by Mark Cocker (ISBN: 9780224076012)
For some reason, despite perhaps half a dozen crows around, on the patch of green by the city council's building, just going on pecking at the grass, this lone crow just kept close. I experienced company, and great comfort, from this single crow, and I didn't feel alone and isolated as much.
This gave me the courage to phone my wife, who told me to get to see a doctor ASAP and made an appointment. Oddly enough the first doctor didn't do much, but the next day the second doctor, almost breaking into a sweat, immediately put me onto medication. I had a lift-threatening illness that in itself is also a sign of something else too.
After a few months I was completely clear (October 2014) but I've never forgotten the comfort of crows.
I've just been given permission to post up onto my Area 17 blog about the remarks made by a published haiku and renku writer, and her Aunt, who isn't a poet but loves crows, how it comforted them that day they saw this haiku go up.
Thanks for your wonderful post! :-)
warmest regards,
Alan
April 13th, 2015 at 11:57 pm
Thanks for this wonderful haiku, Alan. It was comforting just reading it.
April 14th, 2015 at 2:19 am
Dear Seren,
Thank you so much for your kind comment. I deeply appreciate your words.
warmest regards,
Alan
April 14th, 2015 at 4:07 pm
I am fascinated by this haiku though I don’t really understand it very thoroughly. I had pet jackdaws as a child and still feel an affinity with the crow family. This haiku helps me revisit this experience.
April 20th, 2015 at 3:43 am
Hi Paul,
.
re:
.
dark news
the comfort
of crows
—ALAN SUMMERS
.
Due to an amazing email exchange I will be posting this up onto my Area 17 blog next week. I hope that might help.
.
I don't know if you looked at my previous replies, but basically it was a very dark time for me after coughing up blood, expecting to have something terminal.
.
I was a participant in an arts business course that I wasn't enjoying, and feeling isolated. Something I don't like happen to others when I'm running art events.
.
I went out for a lunch break, wandering around, near the green by the city council building (that has unicorns on its roof), and a crow, one in particular, singled me out, and accompanied me, kept close.
.
I genuinely felt moved and comforted, and my burden was lightened. I decided to phone my wife, who immediately told me to get home and go straight to the doctors.
.
I had treatment and recovered later last year.
.
warm regards,
Alan
April 19th, 2015 at 2:30 am
Hi Paul,
.
re:
.
dark news
the comfort
of crows
—ALAN SUMMERS
.
Due to an amazing email exchange I will be posting this up onto my Area 17 blog next week. I hope that might help.
.
I don't know if you looked at my previous replies, but basically it was a very dark time for me after coughing up blood, expecting to have something terminal.
.
I was a participant in an arts business course that I wasn't enjoying, and feeling isolated. Something I don't like happen to others when I'm running art events.
.
I went out for a lunch break, wandering around, near the green by the city council building (that has unicorns on its roof), and a crow, one in particular, singled me out, and accompanied me, kept close.
.
I genuinely felt moved and comforted, and my burden was lightened. I decided to phone my wife, who immediately told me to get home and go straight to the doctors.
.
I had treatment and recovered later last year.
.
warm regards,
Alan,
May 11th, 2015 at 6:40 am
Beautiful. Poeish :-)
May 12th, 2015 at 12:36 am
Thank you. Poe? Well, I did love that story and film about the raven. :-)
warm regards,
Alan
October 3rd, 2015 at 8:27 pm
This is a thought provoking haiku Alan. It is one top see the "other side" of the crow symbol.
I very much like where this haiku takes me.
Dawn
May 20th, 2016 at 3:13 am
Thank you Dawn.
Crows are like people, there are shades all the way from light to dark. Crows are also the caretakers of the planet, unlike humans, and sometimes the less pretty species are the ones that look after things better.
Though I would have to say that the crow family is beautiful, and just like other caretakers, we will always need them.
warmest regards,
Alan