My May Tetrahaikai Walk (Draft Haibun)

Prologue: The Everyday

Before my walk in search of something close to poetry, I sat at the Newburyport waterfront, ate my breakfast, and stared at the harbor. The water was rippled roughly by the wind and the reflection from the sun was strong, though not blinding. It was diverted by the many waves.

So when finished with my bagel and coffee, I continued to watch the river, waiting for some inspiration for an initial poem, a preamble to the coming walk. None came. I couldn’t get past the wind. It was blowing steady from the northwest and was quite brisk, if not downright chilly.

I had rushed my breakfast because of it. Now it was getting in the way of any inspiration. Frustrating, to say the least. But catching that emotion, I rode it to its source. That’s when I realized I had been looking for something already there.

The wind’s been blowing down this river
a thousand miles, ten thousand years—
I’ll turn and walk with it today.

~Son Rivers 2007