An exchange of e-mails on January 2, 2003, prompted David Shapiro to suggest to David Lehman that the two Davids "link haiku" for a year. They more modestly sustained their haiku exchange through the month of January 2003. In February of that year they traded couplets, and in March aphorisms. Here are the first several haiku exchanges:
Back at you
Date: 1/2/03 9:15:03 PM Eastern Standard Time
No one spoke, David
Lehman, David Shapiro,
Last year's (Dan's) tin snow.
– David Shapiro (1 / 2 / 03)
All said grace, and we
(Stacey, Lindsay, and the two
Davids) sipped our tea.
– David Lehman (1 /3 /03)
Re: Back at you : let's link haiku for a year
Date: 1/4/03 12:59:42 PM Eastern Standard Time
Then suddenly spoke:
Friends, flowers, poems
Written all day long!
– DS (1 / 4 / 03)
Let's link haiku for a year : OK I'm game
An exchange of gifts
Can also be a challenge
To match wits at song.
--DL (1 / 5 / 03)
Only one haiku
a day seems economic
More if inspired --
Season words were rules
But we might prefer ice-cream --
Pillow words are tools --
Oh and ah... OK!
like haikus in the grass oh
let the pigeons pass
Most important say
the great haiku thinkers are
zee contradictions!
As in: just the facts
then the ideas sail black snow
white cars: computers --
insight too: the light
seventeen syllables yet
the whole world on screen
– DS [1/ 6 / 03]
I prefer to write
just one a day though there are
days when two feel right.
In January
the snow is succinct and white
on pines of night.
– DL [1 / 6 / 03]
Re: PPS: Agreed: one two two a day at most (tankas permitted?)
Date: 1/6/03 3:06:37 PM Eastern Standard Time
I agree: some days
are more inspiring: snow
city sparrows, friends.
But mostly, compact
as cell phones, haikus need
a whole day to grow --
– DS [1 / 6 / 03]
