haiku

Revelations from Living with A Book Left Open

Although I’ve often left art books open around my space so I could live with an image, it only recently occurred to me to do that with a volume of tiny, powerful poems.

Soft Rain on the Pond, Fireflies in the Field and a Poem for the End of Summer

In case you haven’t been able to get away enough this summer, or have but are wondering where it went, here are a some lovely time-stopping moments of summer…

Cherry Blossoms in Your Face: Time Lapse, Gif, Haiku and NOW

A superb little time lapse, haikus and a gif are reminders to take a moment to take in the cherry trees coming into bloom: opportunities for amazement.

How to Maintain a Kind of Summer in the Horribleness of Winter

Roz Chast’s January New Yorker cover “Cruellest Month” made us laugh out loud. “I wanted to show just the horribleness of January.” Chast says. And she did. Then we thought of ways to change our winter mindset.

Hi/Low: Round Porthole Mirrors for a Haiku-like View

You have only to search MIRROR on Improvised Life to find evidence of an obsession. Not to look at one’s self. But to angle them in such a way as to SEE a bigger view. Take these port-hole mirrors, for example…and Basho’s haiku…

The Secret Flashcodes of Fireflies

For a summer evening, some lovely silent videos of fireflies, haiku from centuries ago, and a hint at their secret flashcode.

You Control Your Time (Warren Buffett + Bill Gates)

When Rose asked Bill Gates what the biggest thing he’d learned from Warren Buffett is, Gates replied it isn’t about investing money; it’s about investing time.

Never Give Up! (Buson and Babar)

Just as we were wondering if March, the fickle, endless-feeling month would ever end, we found hopeful signs…

A Wondrous Dragon in A Single 2-Minute Stroke w Haiku

This truly astonishing tiny video is a perfect morning mediation with a inbuilt lesson: The ease of this miraculous single stroke-that-became-a-dragon is the result of intense practice and many failures.

Wabi-Sabi Lesson: Broken Blossom with Rubber Bands (+ haiku)

At dinner at photographer Ellen Silverman’s house, I noticed a beautiful on-the-verge-of-flowering Amaryllis plant on her kitchen island…and next to it her clever, fast save of a cluster of buds that had broken off. It was as beautiful as the plant itself and embodied the elusive quality of wabi-sabi.

Leap (William Wegman) with Haiku

One of the best titled leaps we’ve seen (in our vast collection): William Wegman’s For a Moment He Forgot Where He Was a Jumped into the Ocean. THAT is how we would love to live our life:

Walking the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Path w Poetry

We thought these extraordinary photographs of walking Japan’s ancient deep forest pilgrimage path would be a fine wait to start the week. And of course we found poems to accompany them…

Sleep Doc Wakes Up Nap Shamers

Being avid but somewhat guilty nappers, we were heartened by the research of Damien Leger that shows a well-timed snooze to be ESSENTIAL to good cognitive functioning. The key, he says, is to nap wisely, without shame.

Re-envision Time to Have More of It

Scott Thrift redesigned the traditional numeral clock to make it shift the way you experience your day: he simplified a 24-hour day into a visualization of dawn, noon, dusk and midnight, its slowly moving hand making a gradual transition from one to the other. He says its effects are powerful…

How to Walk Around with “Poet Mind”

Knowing of our love of — and frequent postings of – centuries-old Japanese Haiku, tiny poems that perfectly describe an instant, a friend gave us The Haiku Anthology. It contains very surprising haiku written by contemporary Americans in English; evidence of modern life is everywhere…as poetry and insight… long meeting I study the pattern embossed on the napkin * freshly…

Pain-in-the-Ass Poetry Chain Letter: Our Guilt-Free Hack

After we received the same poetry chain letter from two different friends, we felt ourselves resentful and beleaguered by the work it took. But we love the idea of emailing poems to friends. So we created a guilt-free, no-obligation, joy-based email.

LOOK! Cherry Blossoms are Happening NOW

Two astonishing time-lapse videos and a couple of haikus remind us of the fleeing moment that is cherry blossom time. It only takes a moment to STOP and take it the fabulous colors as we walk by a blossoming tree.

A Powerful Spring Poem with Robledo’s Wondrous Images

When we stumbled on this powerful little haiku, we thought right away of Maria Robledo’s wondrous flower assemblages…where we found another surprising haiku.

So Many Pathways At Any Given Moment

This morning we ready this haiku by Buson: Coming back— so many pathways through the spring grass. Only nine words, it has been resonating all day

Re-entry…What We Learned On Our Summer Stay-cation

Monday evening of Labor Day, we could positively FEEL the shift of air and energy as the entire country grabbed every last BIT before the official end of summer. We spent the day hanging on the terrace reflecting on our three-week stay-cation that turned out way different than we had imagined, and would yield an essential lesson.

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