morning - the tree

       showers the wood cutter

       with its last rain

       ---

       Paul O. Williams (1935-2009)

       From "Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku." Brooks Books, Decatur, Illinois (1999).

       Rain fell during the night and the leaves on the trees are still wet in the morning sun. As the wood cutter swings their axe and it bites into the trunk of a tree, each shudder from the impact shakes free some of the raindrops from the leaves. Once the woodcutter has finished their work, the tree will no longer be rained upon, as it will be cut up and used for building something or other. It is almost as if the tree is appealing to the woodcutter for mercy, crying even, but the scene is just "as so" -- a beautifully concrete description that presents things as they are. The depth we read into the poem does not interfere with our being able to experience the moment itself -- the mark of a superb haiku!

       Selected and commented on by Dhugal J. Lindsay

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