Haiku Reflections

One of the things we learn after writing haiku for a few years is that we can say dark things if we say them lightly, and that playfulness can be profound. At first the tone seems mostly satirical in the way that it echoes the language of the vintner or the perfumer in describing their products. Such language isn’t out of place at a wine tasting, and one might expect it when reading a review of the latest perfume from Paris. To use it to describe the scent of autumn is, however, inherently playful, even if the description itself taps into deeper, darker themes. A poem that describes the mixed message of autumn—a season that invigorates us with its bright colors and bracing air, even as it makes us somewhat sad.
—Clark Strand