Haiku

I wanted to share one of my favorite haiku.  Forward Motion has a haiku challenge every April.  This is the first year I’ve participated because, well, I’m not that good at haiku.  But I’ve found it to be a refreshing change to the usual stuff, and it actually keeps me (and the muse) on my toes.  Dare I say I might be getting better? 

You decide.

The following haiku is on the theme of “plants.”  Naturally, my dark mind goes in positively twisted directions, so naturally I went to a tragic subject (well, tragic for me, anyways).  It is based on a photograph that I actually took of myself after a major, devastating loss (love, not a death.  Well, not a physical one, anyways).  The photograph pretty much set me on my current path: self-portraiture.  By the time I graduated from college, I’d been known for my self-portraits and “haunting” work (this is what people told me, that my work was haunting).  I really want to get back into it.  But, anyhoo, here it is in all its glory (or not):

Black rose, loss of love
black, not red.
Stark photograph, black and white
death not life.
I am still.
No color breaches
the walls
of my heart.