Little Billboards

One of the poems that opened me up to the possibilities of haiku in English was this piece by Gary Hotham:

Sunset dying
on the end of a rusty
beer can . . .

Hotham isn’t pretending to live in the time of Basho or ascribing a purity to the environment that all too frequently isn’t there. Any contemporary wanderer knows the delight and detritus one can find in contemporary America, and I believe Hotham captures all of that and the essence of great haiku in only thirteen syllables.

In the spirit of Hotham’s poem, I wanted the title of this project (haiku are rarely titled) to include something ubiquitous in our contemporary life that cuts against the grain of traditional haiku. Since these poems will also serve as markers and reminders of my day-to-day life, the “billboard” idea made sense. Anyone who has embarked on a daily writing project knows how…