Seeing a single firefly in a field in New York City sparked several haiku, and coincided with astonishing research on the magical insect.
Read MoreLife Got Wild, Be Back in a Week (with Haiku)
Life got so wild of late, I’ve got to take a little break from publishing Improvised Life. I’ll be back in a week with new articles and the spirit of this haiku by Buson.
Read MoreA 16-Second Film’s Moment of Zen Sparks Haiku and a Writing Practice
In this 16 second film, a blow torch + hair dryer + popcorn makes for a curiously zen moment. We found two haiku to go with it. Then we remembered our friend Tim Chegwidden’s timed poetry-writing practice…
Read MoreSylvia Plimack Mangold’s Trees with W.S. Merwin Haiku, Time Disappears
Sylvia Plimack Mangold’s trees are amazingly wonderful depictions of the treeness. As we looked, we thought of this haiku by W.S. Merwin…
Read MoreAnnals of Anonymous Art: Heart Writ in Cherry Blossoms (with Haiku)
Over the days that the bright pink cherry blossoms fell like snow around Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, two hearts formed out negative space appeared. We found the perfect Basho haiku to accompaniment them:
Read MoreWhy Napping Is Essential to Well-Being and How To Do It (with Haiku)
Sleep researcher Damien Leger is determined to dispell modern-day guilt about fatigue and napping, because, he says, it is an essential practice, not a luxury of the lazy or entitled…
Read MoreAnnals of Found Art: Cathedral of Vines (with Haiku)
We frequently stumble on objects that are readymade artworks unto themselves. If we saw them in a gallery, we would ponder them in the way we do “real” art.
Read MoreCherry Blossoms in Your Face: Time Lapse, Gif, Haiku and NOW
A superb little time lapse, haikus and a gif are reminders to take a moment to take in the cherry trees coming into bloom: opportunities for amazement.
Read MoreHi/Low: Round Porthole Mirrors for a Haiku-like View
You have only to search MIRROR on Improvised Life to find evidence of an obsession. Not to look at one’s self. But to angle them in such a way as to SEE a bigger view. Take these port-hole mirrors, for example…and Basho’s haiku…
Read MoreCherry Tree Whose Branches Reach Out to Protect (with haiku + motown)
Every spring when the cherry trees on our corner of Harlem are in blossom, we marvel, not just at the riot of pink but at one particular tree and the life that goes on under it.
Read MoreA Wondrous Dragon in A Single 2-Minute Stroke w Haiku
This truly astonishing tiny video is a perfect morning mediation with a inbuilt lesson: The ease of this miraculous single stroke-that-became-a-dragon is the result of intense practice and many failures.
Read MoreWabi-Sabi Lesson: Broken Blossom with Rubber Bands (+ haiku)
At dinner at photographer Ellen Silverman’s house, I noticed a beautiful on-the-verge-of-flowering Amaryllis plant on her kitchen island…and next to it her clever, fast save of a cluster of buds that had broken off. It was as beautiful as the plant itself and embodied the elusive quality of wabi-sabi.
Read MoreLeap (William Wegman) with Haiku
One of the best titled leaps we’ve seen (in our vast collection): William Wegman’s For a Moment He Forgot Where He Was a Jumped into the Ocean. THAT is how we would love to live our life:
Read MoreScaffolding Festooned with Flowers, with Haiku
Holton Rower sent us this astonishing image of scaffolding festooned with flowers, an utterly magical arbor to walk under. We wonder who made this ephemeral artwork, and where it was? We found two haiku to go with our imagined walk through it:
Read MoreBasho Haiku for Cabin Porn
The other morning, we opened our favorite book of haiku to this astonishing three lines by Basho, written in the 17th century. Life in this world— a makeshift hut like Sogi’s. Such pleasure, contentment, and wonder in a simple makeshift hut made us think of ones we’ve admired…
Read MoreHow to Think in Haiku (and a Haiku about Grasses)
At the very end of May, we planted grasses in the planter on the Laboratory’s patio. Since then, they’ve grown like wild fire, along with the Morning Glory vine we plunked into their soil to further screen us from our neighbors. We love watching the grasses move in the breeze; they seem to constantly change…
Read MoreThe Last of the Cherry Blossoms with Haiku
Last week’s wild weather knocked most of the glorious cherry blossoms off the trees. We found ourselves walking through a wondrous pink “snow”. We sent a photo of this surprising landscape to a few friends. Two sent back haiku to go with it.
Read Moremorning haiku: christopher walken via jim meskimen
(Video link here.) Over the past few months, we’ve made much of our practice of reading poetry in the morning, rather than jumping to the computer. We especially love haiku, the ancient Japanese form of poetry that follows a rigorous formula: three lines of five syllables, then seven, then five again. Haiku tend to be brief,…
Read Morethe first day of spring gift (x-ray tulip + a haiku)
Yesterday was the first day of spring. We were wandering around in the strangely warm weather, enjoying pure spring, not realizing that it was, technically the first day, until evening. X-rays of flowers by Brendan Fitzpatrick made us think of it. Daffodils and tulips are up. Cherry trees are in bloom. We found this haiku…
Read MoreThe Power of Pine Trees Dreaming (Xmas Card)
We’ve stumbled on a few things recently that mightily deepened our view of the Christmas trees that are everywhere now, including a remarkable video of the birth of a pine tree and haiku written hundreds of years ago: Our improvised holiday card to you…
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