Closer than each breath,
For you I look everywhere:
Where are you hiding?
Here I mourn and fast
Yet behind the veil my love
Waits for me, naked.
Possessing you, I
Shall not be me but you -
Who will then be I?
To express my love
In seventeen syllables?
Too few! Too many.
In these haiku I have broken some of the rules and carefully observed others.
Haiku is the name of a Japanese poetic form of seventeen syllables, divided into three lines of five, seven and five syllables. This rule I have obeyed.
However, haiku verses as epitomised by the work of Basho usually concentrate on things perceived in the moment, realisation without the encumbrance of thought.
Mine are more meditative: their content is inspired by the Sufi love poetry of Rumi and Ibn ‘Arabi.
Those who have glimpsed the paradox that we are not who we think we are, will understand these verses.