Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Poetic Musings: Afterlife Haiku by Peggy Willis Lyles

into the afterlife red leaves

Modern Haiku, 41:1, Winter/Spring 2010
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems, 2010 

Peggy Willis Lyles
      
Commentary by the Touchstone Awards Panel   

... Buddhists believe the River Styx separates the world of the dead from the world of living. Red spider lilies bloom on the shore on the side of the living. In previous life cycles, we could be those red leaves falling to the ground. We may have no memory of previous lives and will not know who and what will be in our next lives, but somewhere in those repeating cycles, our paths will cross with the one who entered the other world before us ...

The following haiku is the opening poem in "Section Two: Featured Haiku," Ripples from a Splash: A Collection of Haiku Essays with Award-Winning Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

river's edge
red leaves fall
into a poem

in memory of Peggy Willis Lyles who helped me publish my first English language haiku
and in response to her "red leaves" haiku

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