Who or what is to blame?

Let me start with a question, and then give you an answer (of sorts).
Who, what, when, where, why, how . . . (when did how become the odd man out - in terms of spelling - and why?)

For now, I'll tell you this: In 1993 I borrowed a book from the library - something by Lucien Stryk, I fancy, though I might be wrong - let me check and confirm. I'm pretty sure that the words zen and haiku were contained in the title.

I was working on my cultural knowledge of Japan. I'd applied for a job there, and had been successful. Consequently, I hunted up material to read, and enrolled for a very brief and basic course at nightschool. Ten lessons in all. And didn't that first handwritten page of the most common expressions take an age to commit to memory!

As I say, I read Lucien Stryk's wee tome, and some germ must have remained with me, because a couple of weeks later I found myself in a zen-moment type of situation, and without any conscious decision on my part instinctively and naturally sketched it with words.

drizzle
in my infant's hair
warm hand

We, my son(3) and I, were walking back from school where we'd brought his older sister(6). The weather wasn't all that hot, and when I looked down at the top of his head, I saw droplets of rain suspended in the hairs above his scalp. It was cold, but I was simultaneously aware of that little pocket of warmth we held trapped in our joined hands.

That's how - there's that odd man out again - I started writing haiku. Because I had to.