re:Virals 94

Welcome to re:Virals, The Haiku Foundation’s weekly poem commentary feature on some of the finest haiku ever written in English. This week’s poem was

     the only sound that’s come out of me all day firefly
          — Scott Metz, a sealed jar of mustard seeds (issue 9 of ant ant ant ant ant, 2009) 

Marion Clarke seconds the emotion:

An intriguing haiku from Scott Metz. The image for me is of a person who has spent the entire day on their own, perhaps through choice, but perhaps not. He has now settled down for the evening in a favourite chair on the porch, surrounded by the comings and goings of nature. I get the impression that the author hasn’t felt the need to make any sound throughout the day and the one he makes at the sight of the first firefly of the evening could well is of pleasant surprise. Well, I heard a gasp as I read this!

As this week’s winner, Marion gets to select the next poem, which you’ll find below. We invite you to write a commentary to it. It may be as long or short, academic or spontaneous, serious or silly, public or personal as you like. We will select out-takes from the best of these. And the very best will be reproduced in its entirety and take its place as part of the THF Archives. Best of all, the winning commentator gets to choose the next poem for commentary.

Anyone can participate. A new poem will appear each Friday morning. Simply put your commentary in the Contact box by the following Tuesday midnight (Eastern US Time Zone). Please use the subject header “re:Virals” so we know what we’re looking at. We look forward to seeing some of your favorite poems — and finding out why!

re:Virals 94:

     morning wind
     the library 
     of fallen leaves
          — Anatoly Kudryavitsky, Horizon (Red Moon Press, 2016)