Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Grok goes haiku


Please create 10 versions of a haiku (no need to adhere to the 5,7,5 pattern). The context is that of my cycling along at the same speed as the wind, with autumn leaves rustling alongside. My version is: This wind! these leaves! same cadence as me!



Wind matches my pace,

Autumn leaves dance beside me,

Rustling in rhythm.




Leaves swirl, wind hums low,

My wheels spin in sync with fall,

Nature’s cadence flows.




Breeze and bike align,

Golden leaves rustle near,

Autumn rides with me.




Wind’s breath, leaves’ chatter,

We move as one through fall’s song,

Cycling in harmony.




Pedals turn with gusts,

Leaves skitter in autumn’s waltz,

Speed and season blend.




Fall’s leaves keep my stride,

Wind’s whisper joins the journey,

All in step as one.







Rustling leaves, soft breeze,

My bike hums their autumn tune,

Weaving through the day.




Wind rides at my side,

Leaves twirl in sync with my spin,

Fall’s pulse matches mine.




Cycling with the gale,

Leaves flutter in shared tempo,

Autumn’s rhythm soars.




Leaves and wind unite,

My speed their equal in flight,

Fall’s chorus joins me.



Hm, these seem a little long and wordy. I did ask you not to worry about syllable count - I should have specified that shorter is better.



Got it, shorter is better. Here are 10 concise haiku variations, capturing your cycling in sync with the wind and rustling autumn leaves:


Wind, leaves, my pace—

All one in fall’s rustling dance.

Breeze and leaves match me,

Cycling through autumn’s hum.

Leaves swirl, wind keeps time,

My wheels spin with fall.

Gusts, leaves, my speed—

Autumn rides along.

Wind hums, leaves rustle,

We move as one.

Fall’s breath, leaves dance,

My bike joins their flow.

Leaves skitter, wind sings,

I pedal in step.

Breeze, leaves, my stride—

Fall’s rhythm aligns.

Wind and leaves in sync,

I glide with autumn.

Leaves, gusts, my spin—

One pulse through fall.



Finally, could you create 4 versions of a one-paragraph haibun to accompany my poem?


Haibun 1:

Pedaling through the crisp autumn air, I feel the wind’s gentle push at my back, as if urging me onward. The road stretches quiet, lined with trees shedding their golden leaves, each one tumbling in a chaotic yet graceful dance. They skitter across the pavement, their rustling a soft percussion to my steady rhythm. For a moment, the world feels perfectly aligned—my breath, my wheels, the breeze, and the leaves all moving as one, a fleeting harmony in the heart of fall.

This wind! these leaves! same cadence as me!


Haibun 2:

The autumn sun casts long shadows as I cycle down the empty lane, the wind whispering at my side. Leaves, brittle and bright, drift alongside, their rustling a chorus that matches the hum of my tires. It’s as if the season itself rides with me, each gust and flutter keeping time with my pedaling. In this moment, I’m not just passing through the landscape—I’m part of its rhythm, woven into the fleeting pulse of fall.

This wind! these leaves! same cadence as me!


Haibun 3:

I glide along the winding path, the autumn wind a steady companion, nudging me forward. Scattered leaves tumble across the road, their dry whispers blending with the soft whir of my bike. They move with me, caught in the same invisible current, as if we’re all carried by the same breath. For these fleeting miles, the boundaries blur—between me, the wind, the leaves—and I’m simply part of the season’s flow.

This wind! these leaves! same cadence as me!


Haibun 4:

The chill of autumn brushes my face as I pedal, the wind matching my speed, a silent partner in motion. Leaves, amber and crimson, skitter beside me, their rustling a counterpoint to the steady spin of my wheels. It feels like the world has paused to join me, every gust and flutter synchronized in a quiet, joyful dance. In this stretch of road, I’m not alone but bound to the season’s fleeting rhythm.

This wind! these leaves! same cadence as me!

Friday, April 21, 2023


i spoon

the family pet our

gurgling innards



i crook 

the elderly cat

its twitching dream

Friday, July 29, 2011

Monday, July 18, 2011

USA vs Japan


dignitaries at the
Women's World Cup
no breast between them

Monday, July 11, 2011

Taue


stuffed toys
in the rear seat rice plants
that she missed

Monday, June 20, 2011

Friday, June 10, 2011

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Back in Japan



two butterflies
spiraling higher and higher
DNA





roadkill?

just the tattered pages of
a sex magazine

Monday, October 12, 2009

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Hadashi no haiku




In 2005, with my wife, Mami, I completed a walking and cycling trip the length of Japan. In 2008, I completed the book about it (here's an excerpt). Anyway, despite my fears I was able to compose about 100 haiku in the course of the journey, which I included in Hadashi no Tabi: Barefoot through Japan. A short selection . . .






floating


the idea of


a Zen garden


another element






cool wind


ripples rice


ripples water






I think nothing of


spitting out pips


but what of the peel?






citrus orchards


keeping within cooee


of Route 11






your country


maybe, but it’s


my world

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Rather an occasion

It's a rare day, these days, that I scribble down a haiku. But at least I know I'm not forcing it.

Walking by the hospital, I saw a patient braving the cold for a smoke. You're meant to be at least 10 metres from the building, but she was huddling from the weather in the doorway. A weird sight . . .

A & E
portable drip and a cig
shitty weather


The photo? I just like the look of it.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Jogging into work this morning

It was rainy, but I wanted the exercise and so walked and jogged my way into work. Took a short-cut through the university campus avoiding the puddles. A twig blown from a tree got caught up before my feet, but was so flimsy that it didn't trip me up. I just kept a-striding, and the bit-of-a-sprig kept a-bouncing off my toes.

trips up and up
a twig
my dancing feet

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Sky Land Sea

The local newspaper treats its readers to a one-day-a-week poetry column. Send in your contribution, have it evaluated by the South Island's favourite son, Brian Turner, and you may get published.

Ha! Is it any wonder that most of what sneaks by appear to be clones.

Anyway, the selection criteria take up at least 50% of the available space:



Footnote: Contributions to this column are invited from writers south of the Waitaki River. They should not exceed 35 lines, and they should be typed or emailed in clear text; do not send as an attachment. They may be posted to: Opinion Page, Editorial Department, Otago Daily Times, P.O. Box 181, Dunedin; or emailed to: bryan.james@odt.co.nz. No new correspondence will be entered into, and contributions, which must include a residential address and contact telephone number, will not be returned to senders. Those whose works are selected will be paid a small fee. Monday's poem is published weekly.


. . . takes a deep breath! Talk about overkill. I had the thought of taking a pair of scissors to the footnote, and rearranging the bits to produce a masterpiece of reconstructed text, but there are better things to do. And I don't write haiku on demand or by a template.

I must, however, admit to having had a go (and hence the bitterness). Not considering myself a poet, and not expecting my haiku to be thought of as poems - why else are they largely categorized as juvenile literature? - I did some reconstruction, but using my own word strings.

Herewith my 'poem', being a selection of the haiku that were spawned in the course of a month-long trek that I made down the South Island in Jandals.



Sky Land Sea

Black
an anonymous gate
just the name
landscape
aquiver and curled
at the edge she sits
at the isthmus absorbed
in a book

Mount Patriarch
lets me know where
I am, who I am
looking at land the mountains
cloud over
continuous trill the bird
flutters higher and higher
approaching the pass the wind
rocks a bee on the road
over the top
a light rain

all-day gale the grass
hisses deeper from stocktrucks
long-dead
its scream pains my eye
side of the road
bottles a dozen . . .
and counting that
sharp sun
I stoop at the edge for
sunglasses darts
at my shadow a skink

thousand mile walk
the scene that they snap - Instamatic
cork, cage, foil,
I piece together some one's picnic
a stirring of air stirs
the pond stirs
the sky

the Southern Cross
is lost . . . so many stars!
coughs in the dark
just old men and sheep
departing
arriving
momentous


Well then. At 45 lines long it's too long I suppose. But I had collapsed it into 27 before asking Brian to cast his eye. Still, I like it better this way. Follow my own rules and preferences, what!?

And if it ain't to your liking, hang on, where's those scissors?

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

A published author!

When writing the previous post, I recognized a haiku that I've had published. In this post, then, I've decided to include all of my haiku that have ever appeared in print (other than self-published).




In The second New Zealand Haiku Anthology (1998) ed. Cyril Childs I am one of the 35 featured authors. Page 48 is all mine!

William Lucas



----------------------------------------------------------------



Born 1957 in Wellington, a first generation New Zealander, William Lucas is an ESOL teacher and has lived and worked in India and Japan. He now lives in Dunedin.



----------------------------------------------------------------





A moth?
a leaf . . .
a Moth!





no footprint . . .
just earthworms, naked
over snow





between acts -
the World's Greatest Tumbler
hawks balloons





middle of the road -
midnight muzak
fills the mainstreet





I've pretty much copied the haiku as they were printed. Over the years I've cut down on the punctuation. I rarely use full stops or capitals anymore. I generally use a lesser number of syllables.

A tale of two cities

After returning to Dunedin, New Zealand, my home city, it was inevitable that I would write haiku there also, and that I would then compare what I had written in the two environments.

Rice by the spoon was the result.

I selected 100 haiku written in NZ and a further 100 (not yet included in Eight seasons in Otaru) and alternated them, with an eye on linear progression.

I believe that no haiku actually stands alone. There is always a context - either the haiku that stand on the same page and in the same book, or in the reader's mind i.e. the haiku he or she had previously read.

Here are a couple of six-linked-haiku: two leaves out of my book:

jump
the dead rat
mid! jump

leaping up at me
tonight
just traffic plashing

soaring hawk
behind me honks
a taxi

the crow croaks
a new day of sunshine
slumbers

I might have known
while napping the
silverbeet wilted

blue and green
a sandwich
orange peel

***

duck the willow
wind stirs twice
the rain

nightfoot padding past
the stairwell inlit moon
the silence roars

no footprint
just earthworms naked
over snow

buddha in a
plastic mac and bonnet
sleeping ice

from time to time
I wipe my nose
it's only rain

March melts
but the mud
remains for rain

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Eight Seasons in Otaru

I spent a couple of years in Otaru, Japan, from 1994 until 1996. Apart from the first six months or so, when I gradually eased into writing haiku, these two years are when haiku took off for me.

Near the end of my stay I wrote a compilation of the 100 in my mind best that I had written. I sorted them into categories and wrote brief backgrounds and descriptions, then had it all translated into Japanese (not the actual haiku which remained in English).

I have a copy of that booklet - Eight seasons in Otaru - here at hand. Can't read it though. Must have the original draft around somewhere . . .

Okay then, I've previously posted haiku from the category 'school'. Herewith a haiku from each of the other sections that make up my first compilation:

First impressions

candy kept crisp
for the gods
to unwrap

Commuting

slush hour slaps
waves
across my wake

Insects

clouds brush
bugs hustle to
shut up shop

Trees

sweltering forest
a lizard's tip
writhes in my way

City centre

hatch a patch
of frozen sunshine
red blue red . . .

Cycling

weaving
in and out of line I
hug the half lane

Birds

castles of snow
lowering the camera
sparrows I hadn't seen

Night life

canal at night
train under the bridge
arrives my moment

Flowers

three-year-old eyes
who showed whom
the apple orchard?

Winter

within minutes
swift as snow this
perfect pine

Running

scooting
level footing
ice on ice

Reflections

ten below
and me shuffling a glove
hand to hand

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Back to school

I believe that the first time I ever entertained the notion of 'doing' anything with my haiku was during the two years - 1994 to 1996 - that I spent in Japan. During that period I spent about a month at each of Otaru's 17 junior high schools. Apart from having to introduce myself to about 200 classes (to stay sane I was obliged to dream up half a dozen ways!) I really enjoyed the experience, both at work and at leisure.

Herewith haiku written when I was an assistant English teacher at those schools (and limited to 17):


truant and teacher
exchange a look
ten thousand stale breaths

the snow runs up
the water down the mountain
Kitayama

at Seien
a puff of dust and sunlight
fuki and football

dog in the window
geen kip on the road
off to Zenibako

not green not brown
but winter's here for sure
the cable car jerks

fresh snow
fresh wind
red Oshoro pine

Asari air
fangs of ice let rip
an avalanche

treeline climbs
up up into mist
afternoon dew

boys in purple
crickets in green
and always puddles

tree roots
shoots fresh as salad
even the earth looks washed

slate and ochre
clay and granite
morning's three-point turns

coliseum shook up
in its crystal
christmas ball

principal and pupil
bow . . . break into
a tap dance!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The first six months

I'm going to shoot ahead now. I've written posts about my first two haiku, but at that rate it will take me forever. What I'll do is to post the next 35 in one fell swoop. They make up a set in the sense that I wrote them during the six-month period leading up to my employment in Japan.

I wrote haiku slowly at the beginning (and at the end - but that's the topic of a future post) at a rate of about half a dozen per month. From September 1993 until March 1994, a period of seven months, I wrote just 37 haiku.

I observe that they arrived in twos and threes mainly, as far as their nature or structure is concerned. I don't know - perhaps this reflects the 'setting' that my brain was in at any particular time. Read the following, then, seeking the pattern . . .


shibui!
they all cry
shibui! shibui!

satori?
a single cherry blossom
counts for naught

***

running
against the wind
I dodge a bee

the clouds burst thrice
in the course of my circuit
I crack the hour though

***

in a meat suit
one fumbles
for buttons

such thumping about!
an elephant would
make less noise

***

caught off-guard
such images worthy of
genuflection

twenty years a beard
clean-shaven now
such lines! such skin!

***

overseas
the sun and sky
remain the same

magpies dream
of streams and
ten-speed touring

***

a cloud a hill a tree a pane
this ray explodes
these eyes

degrees
measured in tenths!
symptomatic surely

sunglasses?
shingles!
though you used
to port people
yourself
once


***

I might, might not . . .
make pretty poor company
after

forgive life
the way you do
your clumsy dad

***

a night spent
sitting, writing, walking
dreaming

every man feels
his voice is worth
singing

if the best
does not remain
was it ever?

***

humid evening
inhale a damp towel
instant tropics

despite the dirt
& chocolate smears
baby smells of sunshine

***

betrayed
by my own tongue I
mumble and splutter

each haiku
thwacks!
to halt my nodding

***

three
words
speak

some sort of bird
some sort of tree
does its name
concern either?

***

wrenching my guts
on another's behalf
how stupid!

a cold shower
or a decent crap
any comparison?

cramming one's headful
results in
just what?

***

exercise over
I strut
cushioned soles

on grass
the morning rain
I take a leak

***

we sense
the back beyond the blue
the stars?
give us a chance

give up!
you've almost
conquered

***

bird poop!
from a clear blue sky
release

in a word
this seasoning's not
for general consumption

the Bird lifts
up its wings and wheels
smiles and tears