Haiku Reflections

Many animals sleep “with one eye open” in order to protect themselves from predators. This is true especially of birds—in particular waterfowl, who tend to nest at ground level. The poetic tension of the poem derives primarily from the last four words: “wild geese at rest.” They are sleeping, true. But it is a very guarded, watchful sleep. At the slightest movement in the area around their nests, those open eyes will begin to twitch and move, and the geese will be ready to flee or to defend themselves from attack.
This is one of those haiku we might feel tempted to give a metaphorical meaning to, rather than reading it as solely descriptive of a natural scene. Isn’t that defensive, “one eye open” state of mind something that many of us can identify with nowadays? One could imagine that this is especially true for female readers, given the rising levels of misogyny in the culture at large.
I find myself wanting to conduct an experiment whereby readers are asked to answer the question, “What gender is the sleeping goose that you imagine in this poem?”
As an added point of interest, note that this haiku deviates from the form by one syllable in the last line. This may be deliberate, or the poet may have been counting “wild” as two syllables.
—Clark Strand