Braided Haiku

 

smoke of the battlefield  the scattered silence

 

a thin patch of grass

mingles with the winter fog

 

the rising sun swaddling for hope

*

smoke of the battlefield

mingles with the winter fog

the rising sun

*

the scattered silence

a thin patch of grass

swaddling for hope

 

Fireflies’ Light, Issue 28, October 2023 (Eds. John J.Hon & Mason Arledge)

Author’s Note: The ‘Braided Haiku’ is a form I experimented with in July 2021. Editor, Eric A. Lohman, Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective is kind enough to inspire me with valuable suggestions. There are two one-breath short monoku: one at the top and one at the bottom having a two-liner in between. In all, the braided haiku frames out to be, two 3-line standalone haiku: one in italicized, the other in plain text and two monoku out of a 4-line micropoem. The form is titled ‘Braided Haiku’ as three plaits are required to braid or weave. Here we have 2-number of three plaits (one in italicized and the other in plain text) to compose two standalone 3-line haiku.