Responses to Haiku

Responses to Haiku

Haiku MindA book collated—By Patricia DoneganA gift for my birthday, a gift which has now been turned into an inspiration.The first haiku in Patricia Donegan’s book Haiku Mind instantly took me to the stairwell at Madhyamaka, our local Buddhist centre.I had visited there in 2018 to meditate and write; I wrote a poem sat in the stairwell, now this seems to me to be serendipity doing her finest work.I determined that for each of the haiku’s in Patricia Donegan’s book I would find, or I would write a response poem; so far so good you might say.But surely there is quite a difference between finding an existing poem which the haiku seemingly takes you to, and writing a new poem, even one inspired by the haiku.Nevertheless I do think that it is in order to call both of these forms responses to haiku.The responses are not haikus, although I do rather hope that the sentiments cross those borders between brevity and extension.EnjoyChristopher2020