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Haiku by Denice Cacace
from Spirit Fish - Voices of the South Coast

choppy lines
pulse across the water -
wind writing

through the window crack
a chickadee calls
light is coming, is coming

on easy curl of wind
a black hawk floats
counting salmon

*I found these Haiku in a collection of essays and poems by writers from Oregon's South Coast. The thing that immediately struck me about these Haiku was how the third or "punch" line added so much color and meaning to the first two lines and what a thrill it was to read these lines in order and discover their full meaning sequentially.

For example, we've all seen hawks floating on the wind, but the words "counting salmon" suddenly paint the entire picture... they add a river and trees, they give the bird's flight focus and posture, they link the bird to its environment and even suggest our link to the greater environment. The chickadees's voice comes to life lyrically in the words "light is coming, is coming" and those words also paint the predawn outside the window, morning chill and all. And the choppy lines in the first Haiku could have been from a boat, they could have been ocean surf, but the word's "wind writing" turn them into ripples on a lake. Beautiful.

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