Between
Vaughn
Seward, CA
Snowy pines—
the squirrel again finds
his pinecones.
Two standing soldiers—
cigarette burning down.
Grocery line—
for the coming week,
provisions in hand.
Notes:
196
This Renhai was
written in Esperanto and translated into English. Here is
the original Esperanto version:
Inter
Je neĝaj pinoj —
la sciuro retrovas
siajn strobilojn.
Du starantaj soldatoj —
cigared' forbrulata.
La paga vico —
manĝoprovizo en man'
por la semajno.
Note that it is
still expected in Esperanto haiku writing circles that the
5-7-5 syllable count be adhered to, thus the apostrophe at
the end of some nouns. This device for adjusting the
syllable count is a long-standing convention in Esperanto
poetry which goes all the way back to the founder of
Esperanto, Dr. Zamenhof.
This renhai was also an experiment in a new approach to
writing renhai. That is, each verse was written without
concern for a theme, only about the links between each
verse. With the linking itself, the focus was at the
emotional level and less at the object or intellectual
level. As it turned out, a theme (Consuming) emerged all on
its own.
