A Haiku-ish Mood

Coffee on my pants
On a Thursday afternoon.
Oh well. It’s worth it.

Thursday is coffee day. Barring something odd to the week, B and I visit our local coffee shop every Thursday afternoon after school. Most of the time, I go back to school to do the work that I don’t get done in the music room—organizing the morning announcement spreadsheet—updating the school-wide incentive bulletin board—going through the answers to the weekly art and character education questions.

Today was no different…only today the barista left coffee on the bottom of my mug so I got coffee on my pants when I rested the mug on my leg…and today B was in a haiku-ish mood, so she began to count the syllables of my statement, “I got coffee on my pants,” and then we proceeded to write the above haiku.

For those of you who know B, you know that she is an amazing artist. You also know that she thinks that she is not an amazing artist even though her doodles put the average person’s best work to shame. What you probably don’t know, though, is that B is a wonderful haiku writer. She says that her love of all things Japanese has given her this secret talent. Maybe so. Regardless, it’s a secret talent that makes me smile—because it’s so unexpected.

B has been teaching our 3rd graders about Japanese art for the past few months. This week is haiku-illustration week—hence B’s haiku-ish mood. As we looked at haikus together after our 3rd grade classes today, we found a few that we really liked. Those of you who know B will be happy to know that she posted them on her Pinterest page. And so…here they are—from funny to poignant. Which do you like best?

April celebrates
National Poetry Month.
This is a haiku.

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense.
Refrigerator.

Inside everyone,
the infinite traveler
longs to be set free.
--William C. Hannan

Wake butterfly—
It’s late, we’ve miles
to go together.
--Matsuo Basho

And now…a haiku for my B…and the rest of my teaching peeps:

This challenging thing:
More than a job. Jobs pay bills.
Teaching changes lives.

Thanks for changing lives, friends;
For helping set free infinitely traveling butterflies.
True. We’ve got a long way to go.
Miles and miles to go.
But I believe we make it:
Together.