The Haiku of Sonia Sanchez

Sonia Sanchez is a longtime poet and professor at a well-known Pennsylvania university. Haiku is a favorite form for Sanchez. She makes the haiku form really stand up and come alive. I read a lot of her poetry when preparing to write The Lily & The Aster. There is something indescribably marvelous about her haiku, like this:

Love between us is
speech and breath. Loving you is
a long river running.

~

Come windless invader
I am a carnival of

Stars a poem of blood.

~

I am you loving
My own shadow watching
This noontime butterfly.

~

Derelict with eyes
I settle in a quiet
Carnival of waves.

Her other poetry speaks volumes as well. Here’s what she had to say about haiku:

The Haiku For Me Is

Silence. crystals. cornbread
and greens. laughter. brocades.
The sea. Beethoven. Coltrane.
Spring and winter. blue rivers.
Dreadlocks. blues. a waterfall.
Empty mountains. bamboo. bodegas.
Ancient generals. dreams. lamps.
Sarah Vaughn. Her voice exploding
in the universe, returning to earth
in prayer. Plum blossoms.
Silk and steel. Cante jondo
Wine. hills. flesh. perfume.
A breath inhaled and held.
Silence.

Brilliant, just brilliant, I say.