23 January 2014

Haiku 2014/23

filled with strange sadness
to realize I'm always
filled with strange sadness

3 comments:

Civic Center said...

I'm sorry too.

That may be my favorite haiku of your new series so far.

Taking a one-day sabbatical from the horrors of Silicon Valley to go to San Quentin tomorrow morning for the Sarah Cahill/Henry Cowell concert.

Pray for me, although the first thought when I read your haiku is that I'd rewrite it for myself as "filled with strange happiness/to realize I'm always/filled with strange happiness," although of course the number of syllables is all wrong.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Thank you! I'd attribute the realization reflected here to re-reading Proust, but one thing that's really striking me this time around is how funny he can be. But then I hoped this one would be kind of funny as well as very accurate.

Enjoy the concert -- it should be a fascinating experience. I have had a slow performance month but tomorrow am going to what was supposed to be the Alice Coote recital but which is now the Sasha Cooke recital. I was wondering if you'd be there. I know you dislike recitals but I know you like her.

Yes, the syllables are wrong! Maybe "filled with a strange joy" but it doesn't quite work the same in the third line and I try to avoid using articles as filler syllables. I'll let you work on it -- it's your strange happiness, not mine.

Civic Center said...

The punchline is I don't really care how many syllables there are which may be part of the clue to strange happiness. And oddly enough, Janos has demanded that I be his plus-one tomorrow evening for the Divine Sasha singing everything I disdain such as Art Songs, Lieder and Chansons, but what the hell? See you there.