Life: the only game there is
On the Carpe Diem site we have been set an interesting challenge – to write a haiku or tanka on the theme of ‘life is a game’.
This isn’t exactly a new theme for poetry, many poets in different countries, writing in different languages, have done the same, but it seems to me a bit unusual for haiku. However, us haiku writers can rise to any challenge, and I suspect that, in the ‘old days’ when Basho and his friends were holding (drunken) haiku parties, many way-out subjects were used.
Chèvrefeuille himself has given us a beautiful haiku as a model, tying the game to the seasons:
life is but a game
nature rolls the dices
seasons change
I haven’t managed to use the seasons, but I found the theme fits the haiku form well:
life is an endgame
only the Fates are certain
when the game will end.
e a m harris 