Hay(na)ku

“The “hay(na)ku” is a poetic form based on a 1 word/2 words/3 words stanzaic pattern. It can be as short as three lines or as long as humanly possible.” — Ernesto Priego

Ernesto, a poet and acquaintance of my uncle’s, has agreed to write one for Jen and me and send it to us as part of his Hay(na)ku Postcard Project (see our blogroll, to the right of this webpage).

Here is a hay(na)ku I wrote the other day, about a dream I had one of our first nights in Berkeley:

In
a dream,
at the church
of
my childhood,
as mass commenced,
I
sat in
the last pew.

The
black priest –
not African, American –
delivered
to us,
his sparse congregation.

He
spotted me;
he knew me.

He
strode down
the aisle, a
large
finger pointing.
Where had I
been,
he asked,
his homily redirected.

Up
front, I
saw my grandmother,
in
her usual
place, turned around.

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