Winter

The jaws of the cliff
Stood square against the soft hands
Of a first snowfall.
 
Yet children do not
Cry out nor do they plead once;
Snow dampens the wood.
 
You had said one thing,
And someone else another;
Outside, winter waits.
 

“Winter” is an example of a triple haiku, a new, poetic form I have used for several years. This form is derivative of the original haiku, which Japanese poets have employed for centuries. American poets – initially, the Imagists, such as Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and John Gould Fletcher – began writing a single haiku as a standalone poem in the early part of the 20th century. Toward the end of his life, W. H. Auden wrote frequently in the haiku mode, but not as I have formulated it, using three haiku in a poem with each haiku being the equivalent of a stanza, and each stanza being based on the normal haiku format: three lines with five syllables in the first and last lines and seven syllables for the middle line.