John Wills' Haiku of Nature in Motion

by Kasara Welch
October 24, 2015

John Wills is a haiku writer who excels at writing about being in nature. I found in the majority of his haiku, that first line is really what creates the image, but the last line is what ties it all together. The first line of a lot of his haiku paints the main or background picture. Details like "the hills," "below the falls," "the old dog," and "summer woods" are what establish a background setting for a reader. This first line never actually creates the whole picture. It just creates the basics of the picture. As his haiku continue the middle line creates "movement" in the imagined scene. He uses clouds rolling, rivers moving, the wind, and other ways of describing movement in that middle line. This is how he creates a moving image for his reader. In a lot of his haiku, that last line puts that final "stroke" into the picture. He uses the last line to describe what is moving or how it is moving. Sometimes that last line even describes how long the movement lasts. He's able to describe the movement very clearly, whether it's how long it lasted, what is moving, or if it is moving slowly or quickly without specifically describing any of those things. He's able to contribute three completely different things in each line and create an extremely descriptive picture. His haiku don't normally describe a still picture but something that creates a moment or two connected. His haiku are moving images instead of just a single "snapshot."

the hills
release the summer clouds
one haiku by one by one

Wills, Reed Shadows, 15

When I read this haiku I imagined people laying on the ground with hills out in front of them. The person or people watching the sky are completely relaxed on a nice spring day. They are looking up at the sky aimlessly. As they search the sky, they see the clouds rolling by. They watched each of them appear from behind those hills then disappear behind another off in the distance. They only got to see the clouds for a fraction of time, but it was as if they popped out from behind one hill and then shortly after disappeared behind another. It almost reminds them of something similar to an assembly line, as the clouds pass by but are only theirs to see for a limited amount of time.

the larger flakes
stick to the wind
a moment

Wills, Reed Shadows, 23

Reading this, I imagined the first big snowfall. There's always that first snowfall where none of the snow sticks, then there's the next one when there's anywhere from 2-10 inches. That second one has the huge flakes that you're just mesmerized by when you're a child. There's that memory that's stuck in my head from when I was little and I finally saw a snowflake that looked like one of those enlarged ones we made in a kindergarten class. I think of just being little again, staring up at the sky as the snow falls in one of those big snowfalls. You look up and you see the big snowflakes kind of drifting in the wind as the smaller ones make their way to the ground so much faster. In those big snowflakes you can actually see the shape of the snowflake instead of it just being a white dot in the sky. You see the design of the snowflake in that small fraction of time.

below the falls
and broken rocks the moon
comes back together

Wills, Reed Shadows, 32

This paints the image of a person standing at the top of the falls looking down below them. It's night time and there's a full moon. As you look down, you see the fall crashing into all the rocks at the bottom. The rocks look as if they have been there for an eternity or since the beginning of time. Some of the rocks are old, and some of them look as if they've purposely been split in pieces. As you look down into those rocks and the water crashing through, the image of the night sky reflects through the water. I see a huge full moon and a sky full of stars, but you also can still see the rocks and watch the water kind of bouncing off of the rocks and then flowing by. The images of the sky and the falls are able to crash together creating one image, but also creating two images all at one time.

the old dog
snaps at flies awhile
then sleeps

Wills, Reed Shadows, 44

I imagined passing an old farm house when I read this. I imagined that old farm dog either on a leash or running free. I actually can see that really old dog that probably doesn't even get up to bark anymore when people come to the yard. It's that first hot spring day. No one expects it to be that hot and it's dreadful. The bugs are always terrible that first hot day. The old dog tries to sleep, but flies swarm him. The dog is literally covered in flies as if they are trying to eat the poor thing alive. There's that moment in time where people pass by and you see the old dog trying to get the flies off of him by biting at them. The dog is clearly annoyed and continues to try and bite the flies away. After a while, the dog gets too lazy to continue because he is old. The flies still swarm him but he just doesn't care so he decides to sleep out in the yard in the heat. The dog is asleep in the yard and he is once again covered in flies.

parka
in the morning drizzle
fishing

Wills, Reed Shadows, 51

Reading this, I seriously imagined my boyfriend or someone in his family. This puts the picture in my mind of a man in one of those normal yellow parkas. The drizzle is just kind of that light mist that we get sometimes. It's kind of cold, a decent cold rain that comes before a perfect temperature day. He's on a boat on a lake, not bothered by the rain, but simply happy because he is fishing. I also can almost hear that sound that the rain makes when it hits the plastic of the parka. I can hear the sound of the rain hitting the water and even see how the water kind of ripples as the drizzle and the lake connect.

riding along
with the autumn leaves
this morning

Wills, Reed Shadows, 62

I can imagine when the trees first start losing their leaves. You're in a creek or a river in a canoe or a boat. The boat or canoe is just going with the current. You aren't in a hurry to get anywhere, you're just there to enjoy nature and drift along. As you go along with the current, the leaves come with you. All different colors like orange, red, and yellow mixed in with the dark water. The water isn't clear, it's kind of that dark color because it's mixed in with all of the dirt. It's morning time, so it's kind of chilly, the water is chilly, but the people are there just to enjoy the beautiful picture that autumn creates.

summer woods
somewhere up in the leaves
the sound of rain

Wills, Reed Shadows, 68

This paints the image of a very green forest for me. You're walking through the woods, you aren't on a trail, just roaming aimlessly through the woods. You can literally hear the rain hitting the leaves up above you. Although you hear the rain, not much rain gets through because it's hitting every single leaf on the way down. You are sheltered by the trees. They are able to mostly protect you from the rain. Every once in a while you feel a sprinkle or two, but ultimately you're covered and the rain doesn't reach you. You're strictly able to hear the rain.

I catch
the maple leaf then let
it go

Wills, Reed Shadows, 75

This makes me imagine myself little again. When I was younger I used to kind of play a game during the fall. I would try to catch leaves as I saw them falling down. I sometimes catch myself doing this today as I walk through the woods. I imagine a child though in this particular haiku. I imagine a child running to catch that single leaf as it falls. The child is able to catch the leaf, but when he or she does, she observes the leaf. She studies the veins in the leaf, the patterns of the leaf, and even that hole in the leaf that must have been chewed through by some type of bug. When he or she is done studying that leaf, they simply let it go and fall the rest of the way to the ground.

the wind
comes down the cove
a few leaves follow

Wills, Reed Shadows, 82

This I picture a fisherman hiding in a cove. He originally went to the cove to stay out of the wind. He had originally been out on the main lake but the wind was making fishing difficult for him. It was causing a lot of waves, the boat was hard to keep anchored. He's been in this cove hiding from all of that wind able to enjoy fishing because it's much calmer in the cove. There's no wind yanking the boat around and there's no wind crashing into his face. Suddenly the wind changes directions just for a moment. In that moment, the wind hits his face and leaves fall into the mouth of the cove, but then the wind goes back to the old direction leaving his fishing spot calm again.

the bullfrog
leaves its eyes
above the water

Wills, Reed Shadows, 87

This paints the image to me of a pond that's kind of murky. It's not a perfectly clean pond, it has algae growing in some places and cat tails growing in other places. I imagine watching from the bank of the pond as you see frogs jump across Lilli pads. That one frog jumps off the Lilli pad and into the water and you no longer see it. You watch that splash that the frog creates. As you continue watching the frogs play, you search for that frog that had jumped into the water. You wonder if he will reappear, if you will see him swimming by, or if you'll ever see the frog again. As you continue searching for the lost frog, you notice that frog that jumped into the water is now watching you. Its head it barely popping out of the pond. You can see its nose and its eyes, but its body is lost within the water.

Work Cited

Wills, J. (1987). Reed Shadows. Sherbrooke, QueÏbec, Canada: Burnt Lake Press. Print.