The Cracked Door – Daily Haikus
Reflections on life, the world, and society. Come explore with me.
One more year has passed
On this task without
The appearance of an end
To travel the whole world.The more I travel,
The bigger the world seems.Will this be worth my remaining youth
To see it all, to go go go?
What will I think when I look back
At this time as an old person?
Maybe I’m already an old person now.
Context (if you’re interested):
Today’s my birthday. This was my reflection on the last year.
Is life cruel?
It brought me you,
But it prevented me
From ever actually
Enjoying that.
Context (if you’re interested):
This poem based on an unnamed poem in “You Are Here” by Dawn Lanuza.
At the center of
The magnificent sun that
Radiates its light
For the rest of the world, there
Is the darkest place to be
Context (if you’re interested):
It’s about the experience of being the center are warmth and light to others. You give to others, but from your perspective, the world seems less warm to you. It can feel incredibly dark when you are the one transmitting light to others around you.
Neither still streams nor
Roaming rivers can divide
The love that binds us
Context (if you’re interested):
Based on the poem that Tsogt Khung-Taiji carved into the rock at Delgerkhan in Mongol
Big boulevards, narrow streets
Grid layout, squirrelly alleyways
Big imposing rusty iron door, warm interior
Flat sprawl, many stairs
Snow in September, but it doesn’t stick
Context (if you’re interested):
Can you guess what city this is about? (Not the city where the image comes from; that’s just a stock image.)
Only remembered
For your death and for those you
Brought down with you
Context (if you’re interested):
I visited the Terracotta Army that day. It’s a real marvel of human ingenuity. I was learning about how often Chinese emperors would bury wives, servants, and others with them to serve in the afterlife. Nowadays, some of them we know very little about them except the humans they killed with them. Sometimes in life, the main lingering impacts we have are the destructive ones. It can make you think.
Fine food costs hundreds of yuan
Fine delicacies on a plate of jade,
But I set my chopsticks down, unable to eat
My mind lost in a maze
I want to speak with the others,
To hear their stories and share adventures,
Not to sit here alone eating fine food
Context (if you’re interested):
Loosely based on “Hard is the Journey” by Li Bai, but I am not satisfied with it. I decided to write my own story in a poem that follows the story beats he set out. This is my first attempt to do that.
Tell me the way to
Heaven. This? Or that? Or, which?
What maze of paths!
Context (if you’re interested):
I wrote this to express feeling confounded when I see others so confident they know what is best for everyone.
Each night we’re apart,
I look up at the same moon
Like you smiling down
Context (if you’re interested):
Based “Water Melody Prelude: When Will the Bright Moon Appear?” By Su Shi. This is also a tribute to the Mid-Autumn Festival in China, although I am a few days late. (At the time of the festival, I was running around too much to be able to pause and write a poem about it.)
Come as you aren’t
I’ll be better able to
Make you how I want
(The story behind this poem; only read this part if you’d like to hear my personal story. Skip if it you’d prefer to glean your own meaning from the poem: I wrote this poem to help me vent my emotions about a specific dispute that happened. I am trying to convey how humans tend to event more and more arguments to solidify their initial impression in their mind even as more facts made it clear their position was wrong.)
For me, this poem is about conformity, about the pressure to be a blank slate so one can conform to how others want you to be.