jackdaws in snow
thumbing through
all our dreams
Comment: a haiku set in winter time (fuyu 冬), inspired by various Japanese woodblock printings such as Crow on Snowy Branch by Watanabe Seitei, Two crows in snow by Ito Sozan and Crows in Snow by Takahashi Biho. The dark plumage of the jackdaw (nishikokumarugarasu 西黒丸烏) stands in stark contrast to the whiteness of the snow (yuki 雪), making it clearly visible even at a distance. As underlined by the poet himself, ‘jackdaws in a dream can mean positive things including finding love, and that’s been a driving force in my life’; a positive symbol that can be shared by each reader, inscribed within classic aesthetic coordinates. Note the semivowel ‘w’ in line 1, which gives a sense of openness and softness to the opening ku, and the reiteration of the sound ‘th’ in the following verse, which effectively renders the sense of revelation underlying this poem.
