I'm a little stunned that I made it to the halfway mark--six months of haiku! With last month came the gift of ease. Only temporary, I'm sure, but how lovely to find haiku through the course of the day as I might find a lost button or a shell on the beach. There you are, little thing, perfect and whole, waiting to be picked up.

After working so hard to make space, find time, sit or walk, and observe, this is the reward--haiku dropped in my lap.

This one did not come with such ease. The idea began in the heat of summer, but it seems fitting that I couldn't finish it until autumn.

[poem temporarily removed for revision]