Heeding Haiku With HA: What is Man?

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Life, Man, William Blake

Done for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie – Heeding Haiku with HA. This week, we are to distill William Blake’s poem below and write a haiku or tanka in the same spirit. I don’t know if I made any sense 🙂

William Blake : The Fly

Little fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death,

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

Mine

what is man

that walks on all fours

we are flies

2

a light swat

then we are no more

puffing wind

3

to live or to die

as wanton boys to mango

we’re squashed with a breath

so I am no less than me

and you are no less than you

Copyright © Celestine Nudanu

21/05/14)

I appreciate your patience with me as I catch up on your blogs. Thanks a million! Shalom.