Tackling Haiku (1)

Haiku #1

The shoreline recedes

While the sun shines unhindered

revealing sea gems 

I wrote this haiku from a simple 2-paragraph reflection I wrote a year ago on a sketch pad. I said that:

    "I have always been a lover of the beach, the ocean. Maybe not always for swimming, but for reflection. Whether it's sunny or drizzly, I won't mind really burying my toes to the sand as I watch the ocean tell me about life itself. About going away and leaving, as the shoreline recedes while it's vapor rushes up to the sun, on scorchydays….

    …and about coming back, as the rain beats the seawater as they join again, on dark and stormy nights."

This haiku is suggestive of the many episodes of nature. Evaporation in science tells us how energy from the sun absorbs water from the oceans and other bodies of water. So on cloudless day, when the sun is tall or shines the brightest, the receding shoreline in the haiku acts as a curtain or a lifted skirt uncovering an ocean's many treasures and secrets. Imagine getting temporary glimpse of starfishes, mollusks, mussels and fragments of corals on bare sand. In another sense, an unobstructed sunlight, with it's glistening effect on the water, makes it become very transparent making it possible for even a boat rider to see through the water depths without getting down or diving into the water. So from that perspective, the sun illuminates a vast showcase of the ocean which includes a wide-spectrum of fishes, of seagrasses, corals and sea mammals. Sometimes, human droppings as well. Droppings as in dropped dolls, dropped shoe or cap. By this however, the first line of the haiku might not have a direct significance at all although it could be indicative of a hot, summer day that makes everything beneath the sea so clear to see. 

Finally, as any traditional haiku avoids the use of metaphors, this haiku in itself is a metaphor. It captures a moment in one's life when the sun shines the brightest. When dreams are achieved, prayers are answered or a wisdom is realized or obtained that one's confidence is lifted up to it's highest level. This confidence triggers breakage of one's limitations and old fears. It peels off the spirit of insecurities  to finally unravel the many untapped potentials that have been the birthright of any human unperturbed by life's many problems.

On  that day when a person finally believed in himself and see the sunny side of things, great things are achieved and he becomes the treasure he's truly supposed to be.