Haiku Conversation between Clíodhna Ní Aodáin and Peter Clarke

Clíodhna Ní Aodáin

Since my last page, Christmas and the festivities have come and gone. So we settle into the dreariness waiting for Spring to lift our spirits. Something unusual happened that is worth writing about here. 

My niece, Clíodhna, home from Switzerland had an unfortunate accident that necessitated a long afternoon and evening in A&E in Beaumont Hospital. It was a head injury so of quite a concern. Fortunately, there is no lasting damage but a long lingering discomfort of headache, exhaustion and low mood.

In the course of waiting on a hard plastic chair and because I was texting to see how she was getting on, she wrote a Haiku describing the situation:

Beaumont waiting room

An ever-changing sea of

Slightly sick people.

She wrote a few more to ease the boredom. I took it upon myself to reply in Haiku also. So began a Haiku conversation that went on until she was sent home.

On the first day of the New Year, I had a text from her in which she challenged me to write a Haiku a day for the year 2018. We started and to date we have written about 80 between us. It looks pretty impressive when put together in a single document.

The basic rule of Haiku is familiar to a lot of us. It’s a three line verse in a 5,7,5 syllable structure. It has been described as a “poem in which Nature in linked to human nature” (Haiku Society of America).

So here is a page on them. These were written when we added a new rule that the first word of a Haiku must be the last word of the preceding one. I hope you enjoy them and share the blog if you like it. Clíodhna’s are in Roman and mine are in Italic.

14th January

Those Sunday mornings

created a new genre:

Hangover Haiku

15th January

Haiku writing form
created conversation
that is like soul food

Food for the body
is oft misrepresented
as food for the soul

16th January

Soul mates a rare gift
when you find one hold on tight:
a life companion

Companions are those
Sacred beings that hold you
When life gets rocky

Rocky starts normal
the beginning of new life
Happens midway too

17th January

Too much great thinking
our thoughts are now aligned for
all eternity

Eternity for
a child is fifteen seconds
he can’t wait that long

Long have I waited
for a new inspiration 
Thankfully it's here

18th January

Here is a very long
explanation as to why
I cannot - No!

No inclination
to bring my son to school on
Monday afternoons

Afternoons are sweet
when mornings are filled with work
Satisfying days

19th January

Days are filled with love
and disorientation:
Swings and roundabouts!

Roundabouts delight

the driver when they are clear

A pleasant journey

20th January 2018

Journey to the deep

dark recesses of my soul

where I find nothing

Nothing is a good

place to start to a bright future

uncluttered by past

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