Okay, I’ll look at Brad Bennett’s haiku. There seem to be two versions offered by you?where potholes were sparrows
where potholes were—
sparrowsI recall publishing a haiku about sparrows dustbathing, as it used to be a common site down lanes and residential roads, in my childhood. As I lost a lot of records due to a laptop being stolen, it’s gone, but this reminded me of my own haiku.
It feels like a Summer haiku to me, and a straightforward haiku, so I’ll see about something that isn’t.from her chair by the window she says the virus is a birdJohannes S. H. Bjerg
Johannes S. H. Bjerg:http://www.worldhaiku.net/poetry/denmark/BJERG.PDFUndefinableby Johannes S. H. Bjerg
https://livinghaikuanthology.com/poets-on-haiku/defining-haiku/3182-undefinable-by-johannes-s-h-bjerg.htmlThis preempts covid-19 and its varients, but we did have bird flu at least twice in the 20th Century.
“
StigmaBackyard poultry production was viewed as "traditional Asian" agricultural practices that contrasted with modern commercial poultry production and seen as a threat to biosecurity. Backyard production appeared to hold greater risk than commercial production due to lack of biosecurity and close contact with humans, though HPAI spread in intensively raised flocks was greater due to high density rearing and genetic homogeneity. Asian culture itself was blamed as the reason why certain interventions, such as those that only looked at placed-based interventions, would fail without looking for a multifaceted solutions.”
As Bjerg is Danish, I’m guessing this refers to 2020 in particular:Bird Flu in 2020By the end of 2020 several outbreaks of Avian flu of various varieties were reported in Europe. Since mid-October several European countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have reported outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses, mostly in wild birds.
Both quotes from “Avian influenza” WIKIPEDIA
NHS site (National Health Service, UK)Bird flu, or avian flu, is an infectious type of influenza that spreads among birds. In rare cases, it can affect humans.
There are lots of different strains of bird flu virus. Most of them don't infect humans. But there are 4 strains that have caused concern in recent years:
H5N1 (since 1997)
H7N9 (since 2013)
H5N6 (since 2014)
H5N8 (since 2016)
We know, from covid-19, how isolated many people were, even moreso than in the pre-covid-19 ‘abnormal’ existance we lived, nothing was ever normal.
re:
from her chair by the window she says the virus is a birdJohannes S. H. Bjerg (Denmark)
This could be someone elderly, isolated, relying on the news media, and getting facts wrong amongst the scaremongering, racism, biased news outlets perhaps.
An armchair traveller witnessing the tsunami on television, just a fairly big wave at first, then all the various viruses etc… from avian flu, swine flu, coronovirus etc…
It feels deeply poignant and filled with vertical axis.
Is it haiku?Well it depends on our individual definitions of haiku or definitions and rules set out by others.
As an anthologist we need to look beyond the policing of creative writing, poetry, haiku etc…
This could even be said to be the first level of shasei, which is seeing something firsthand (chair by the window) and sketching in words something seen (in this case a mix of television news, and birds outside, in trees and in the sky).
Just a few thoughts.
