Richard Brautigan


Window's Lament

It's not quite cold enough
to go borrow some firewood
from the neighbors.


This poem is very interesting because it isn't your traditional haiku about nature. Brautigan took the structure of a haiku but used a different theme than what haiku's usually are. The poem however still sticks to the concentrated point, which is hard to vary from with only 17 syllables to use. I liked this poem though because it is about his life or peoples' lives and not about nature. It is more psychological than it is natural. Overall I think the idea that he went with in this haiku is effective because it is unique.

The idea that Brautigan uses in this poem that I would like to use is using haiku for daily life in psychological ways, not necessarily in a natural sense. Also just using haiku poems; I want to start writing more haiku style poems than free-style. I'm glad I was able to come across Brautigan's haiku because it has inspired me and solidified the fact that I want to write haiku. The idea of using the structure of a haiku but describing a situation other than what occurs in nature is a unique way to go about writing a haiku and I would like to try it.