Hi John,
I may be digressing a bit here (so what's new?) but the haiku you offer in 
your reply seems more satisfactory to me:
                           "Sun high in the sky
                            ripens wheat, the farmer will
                            soon reap his reward."
but I'm no expert on this!!!
It might just be that it's simpler to grasp!
It might be that I can hear a faint echo of other poems in the haiku 
tradition I'm familiar with... There's one of Basho's that goes something 
like:
                            "In the paddy fields
                             I bow to the master"
and I find I'm getting an echo of the relationship between the person who 
grows the food and the food that's growing in each of them.
I guess I don't know too well how to approach haiku, though. I guess I feel 
that in a haiku there ought to be some kind of revelation, some kind of 
surprise, some way the reader can say "Yes" to what's clearly, and briefly, 
glimpsed. I guess, as well, in our instant coffee society we expect the 
flavour to come pouring out straight away (and japanese tea ceremonies take 
time...).
I'm reading through what you and grasshopper are saying to each other, tho - 
and there's been other comments made recently, too - so I'm picking up more 
than my few hard grains of what's going on...
Bob

>From: Sandré Clays <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: NEW Haiku (Bob)
>Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 10:44:05 EDT
>
>FROM JOHN
>
>Hello Bob
>
>A nice piece of deduction on your part.  On the right sort of track.  I 
>think
>the easiest way for me to bring 'enlightenment' is to repeat to you a reply 
>I
>gave to c s shar :-
>
>"pond keeper
> > will have clear water
>
>I can see the point you make. If I said to you that a clutch of barley 
>straw
>thrown into a garden pond would clear the green water - green algae, would
>that make it easier to follow as a Haiku? The thought is then looking at a
>ripening barley field, when it is cut then some straw could be tossed into 
>a pond by
>the pond keeper.
>
>If I had been gazing at a field of wheat I may well have written
>
>Sun high in the sky
>ripens wheat, the farmer will
>soon reap his reward."
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>Wbw
>
>John

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