Poetic Musings: Half-Empty Bed Haiku by Peggy Heinrich

half-empty bed

I try to recall

his faults

Heron's Nest, 16:3, September 2015

Peggy Heinrich

Commentary: There is a tonal difference between Peggy's haiku and the following variants, which read more like senryu:

half-empty bed

I recall

his faults

half-empty bed

I count

his faults

In L2 of Peggy's haiku, "try to recall," shows that while still missing her former lover, the speaker is trying to convince herself otherwise by remembering "his faults," L3. Ls  2&3, "I try to recall" (neither  "I recall" nor "I count")/ his faults, effectively enhance the emotional appeal of the haiku, showing something psychologically ambiguous about the speaker's feeling towards her former lover.

And visually and emotionally evocative L1, "half-empty bed,"  juxtaposed with "try[ing] to recall" in L2, makes me think of this everyday phrase, "half a mind," which suggests "not resolute."