Haiku Letter — Coda
March 20, 2021
Dear Oxygen—
Here are the haiku from the past few days, taking us to today.
This is the end of “Making Light: A Pandemic Winter.” My profound gratitude goes out to @oxygen.art.centre. The opportunity to share my haiku learning curve with you and your community has meant a great deal. You were all partners in my daily witness to the winter season’s gradual brightening — and to the flux of feelings of the ever-present pandemic.
The first day of spring in Calgary is terrific. It’s mild, and the cool afternoon breeze feels just right. Fluffy clouds. Birds of many breeds racketing and moving tree-to-tree. A chainsaw. Voices lifting from the streets. I got my first vax-jab this week, had a couple of days of side effects, recovered. I’m tired — attenuated, like a spring being pulled from both ends. But for the first time in a long while I have hope that the tension will ease, and my mor(t)al coil will resiliently assume a recognizable shape.
My daily haiku will continue on my IG @w_mark_giles_haiku — but only for a few days. April 2 will mark the one-year anniversary since I wrote my first haiku. And while I have no intention of abandoning the form, I do intend to take a hiatus from all social media for a few weeks. I will return in May.
Once again my many many thanks.
Love,
Mark
[In conjunction with Oxygen Art Centre + Elephant Mountain Literary Festival’s 2021 Author Reading Series, we offered the digital presentation of W. Mark Giles’s Making Light: Pandemic Winter. Thank you, Mark xx]
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