 One-breath poems
Good morning. I’ve begun to take some renewed interest in reading haiku, particularly from the Japanese master poet Issa. The delight I’ve found, like most I suppose, is how haiku examines one subject, one moment, one feeling with such intensity, focusing our attention much like that of microscope.
Generally I try to read the biographies of the poet whom I’m reading and like many writers Issa’s life was tragic. With his mother dying before he was three years old he lived a cold and lonely childhood. At the age of six he wrote this haiku that seems filled with poignant anxiety.
Come,
Motherless sparrows,
And play
With me.
Issa’s suffering continued into adulthood as all four of his children died before reaching their first birthday. He wandered alone for most of his life. Perhaps it is this solitude that focused his eye upon the fragilities found in nature. | 
Linear Mode
