for the last green pea
swimming in my bowl of soup
there is no escape
The playfulness of this poem carried the day where haiku humor is concerned. There were other comical verses this week, but the theme generally trended in the direction of seriousness.
The poet has countered that trend here with a haiku that captures the sense of fun that many children experience in eating soup, looking to see what hidden surprises each new spoonful holds in store.
“For the last green pea swimming in my bowl of soup there is no escape.” The humor of the personification is two-fold. Not only is the pea a swimmer and the soup a sea, but the child-poet is also a kind of sea monster.
Is there some deeper meaning to this? Possibly. But there doesn’t need to be. Which just goes to show us that humor alone is sometimes enough to make a good haiku.
—Clark Strand