The haiku is an Asian poetic form that originates from 9th century Japan. It's traditionally defined as a 3-line nature poem with a 5-7-5 syllabic line count. Matsuo Bashō (pictured right) is considered the daddy of the haiku and his travel journal, A Narrow Road to the Interior (1694), is credited with making the form popular. Since Bashō, the haiku has been adopted and modified by many of my favorite writers, including Jack Kerouac and Richard Wright.

I began writing haiku in 2005 because I was looking for a simple exercise to keep my pen sharp. In the past five years I've written over 400 haiku. Here are a few of my favorites:

Before the black sky

Past vacant wooden houses

Comes and goes the sea

Listen closely

Other than ocean waves,

there is no sound

Wooden skeleton

Maple without leaves

Winter approaches