Haiku of a Native Son
M. Abduh

Leaving its nest
The sparrow sinks a second
Then opens its wings.
— Richard Wright, This Other World

When living abroad, Richard Wright’s book of haiku, This Other World, was a constant companion. The first thing I read in the morning, the last thing at night. Wright filled each three-line, seventeen-syllable poem with imagery & irony. His work deepened my love for the form. An ocean away from my home & family, these poems poured into me when I felt emptiest.

For Wright, creating haikus was a way to convalesce, to recuperate from a lingering illness, as his daughter Julia Wright stated,

He was never without his haiku binder under his arm. He wrote them everywhere, at all hours: in bed as he slowly recovered from a year-long, grueling battle against amebic dysentery; in cafes and restaurants where he counted syllables on napkins; in the country in a writing community owned by French friends, Le Moulin d’Ande.

Back at home among family & familiar faces, I still turn to these poems, in coffee shops & diners, by the river. Still read them often, to be filled time & again to bursting.