haiku commentary

deeper shadows
     where the walls meet...
     autumn rain
          – Mark E. Brager, The Heron's Nest, Volume XXI, Number 3 (2019)

I imagine a corner, two walls meeting at right angles. I can see the depth of shadow there. If I reach out, I am sure the surface – rough brick or smooth masonry – will be cooler; perhaps because the autumn rain I now notice has started to fall.

The places where people meet are more emotionally complex, stepping, as we may have to, from the comfort of the familiar to the challenge of the unfamiliar. Those “deeper shadows” may be rich with empathy and gratitude. Eshadows in corners Photograph by Steven Castledinequally, they may be fraught with conflict and umbrage.

Brager’s haiku shifts me from inanimate objects to human experience. I sense loss through the image of “autumn rain,” or at least an understanding, or acceptance, of inevitable change that results in something being left behind.

Perhaps change, even for the better, always leaves a small echo of sorrow, for what, or who, was once a part of us.



                            shadows in corners: photograph by Steven Castledine



Originally published re:virals 223