December 2023
Author's Note: I have been engaged for months in writing a series of golden shovels based on the haiku of Japanese masters (specifically Bashō, Issa, and Buson). Given the nature of haiku, most are focused on a season, and the three golden shovels included here not only fit the winter season, but also the theme of “Winter Wanderland” in some way. Note that while haiku are incorporated into these golden shovels, the form itself is not Japanese, but 21st century American. I do, however, write a lot of haiku and have recently published in Frogpond, tsuri-dōrō, and Modern Haiku.
Bitter Moon
golden shovel based on a Buson haiku
I tossed and tumbled all night
like wind-driven flakes of snow.
While others dreamt, the
only thought in my head was sleeping.
While others snoozed in dark houses,
I stared with gauzy eyes at the moon looking
down on me like a searchlight, only whiter.
High Maintenance
golden shovel based on a Buson haiku
Eight years since we moved to mountains
though it seems like only yesterday
we were among hills and alfalfa fields.
You bet me three times today
what I wouldn’t remember by tomorrow—
I lost the bet and the memory. On
the tip of my tongue, at the edge of my
throat—but I’m blank as a rock house
in winter, the numbers of the
address buried under a crust of snow.
Dear Bashō
golden shovel based on a Bashō haiku
Solstice approaches. Anyway,
I choose to honor and celebrate
you in the best way I
know how, for your words will
ignite my cold fireplace this
dark night of winter
when the lucky are in hibernation.
Fruit trees are crusted with
snow, but the fire is scented with apricot,
as if the twigs are ripe with blossoms.
Spring is never far off in
your lines, melting ice in my
hut and the shriveled pit of this heart.
©2023 Scott Wiggerman
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