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Sunday 26 June 2016

the moonlight, too bright
in the sun, a dark glare blinds
see clear in dawn's dusk

Wednesday 22 June 2016

New season

Leaves falling on us
Revealing a new season
All smiles for a while

Fear

A pack of lions
Nothing can stand in their way
Why are we, afraid?

Fear

A pack of lions
Nothing can stand in their way
Why are we, afraid?

Alone

A mountain ahead
The road that follows, unclear
Alone, I will fail

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Winter in the Cape

the mist, descending
thin shroud cloaking all that's fixed
distant seagulls cry

Monday 13 June 2016

For you, for me, for us

We had a birthday two days ago, on the 11th of June. 

A year before, Reinhardt Voges, Kimberley Hing and I sat at Cocoa Oola in Kloof Street, plotting and planning a haiku society for Jan van Riebeeck. A crazy idea whose time had come, I thought. 

And so it came to pass. 

First, the genesis of a single haiku. Then two, then four, then eight -- well, you get the idea. We, the pupils and I, have written many haiku since then, covering many minute inspirations, from the mundane beauty of nature, to the exquisite pain of emotional hurt. Ah, life's rich fabric.

We're not stopping. At some point, down the line, I think of publishing the best of these haiku [i.e., all of them] in real, paper, book form. Give us another year or ten [as long as the internet lasts, Homer Simpson's cynicism notwithstanding...].

It's been a wonderful trip so far, boys and girls. And, journey-wise, we've hardly left Cape Town, on our way to Cairo!

See you all in the next installment of 17 syllables, and a merry Mazel Tov to us all! [Mossie, Riekert, Cameron -- you're up.]

-- Hein Mönnig [Staff: English Department, 11 June 2016]

Wednesday 8 June 2016

ant on quiv'ring leaf
surveys its minute kingdom
unseen by high hawks

Circle

earth feeds beetle, to bird
bird for snake, feast for badger
badger's flesh sates soil

for T.

a warm winter's dawn
in the distance, hazy coolth
butterfly wings still

Tuesday 7 June 2016

Fluttering

your eyelids flutter,
like wings on a butterfly,
and you see new hope.