High Sierra Topix

I have for some years now taken to composing haiku while hiking. I find it a good mental exercise, to see if I can encapsulate observations or experiences in such a constrained form. That they are short enough to hold entirely in even my mediocre memory is a boon; and I can recall them or reconstruct them in the evening to jot them down without much trouble. The rhythm of foot-fall seems well suited to working out the scansion and meter.

This is my favorite so far this year, a response to the for-me comparatively brutal climb up to Upper Kern Basin, coming up the trench:

O trail, bid me climb!
Gladly I shall give each foot
Some hunger for sublime

I am thinking it might be backpacking mantra.

It is 5-7-5.. Close. Try Tanka.

Ah, the Sierra
First day hike always sucks big
Gateway to splendor

First day hike always sucks big

My friend and I used to trade an Haiku everyday about working in R&D. We had a list. Sadly, they got deleted when we exited the company. 3 years of Haiku add up..

It is fun though..

Did you reimburse the company for all of the R&D you spent on Haiku?

nope! different time back in the mid 80's. We actually were allowed to have fun. Even off-sites at Tahoe and Monterey. Heck, I even had a trip purely for pleasure to treat some Customer Engineers and their wives to 5 star meals for their contributions.

Sierra on Fire
No reason to go there now
Swimming with Simba

shoulder straps creaking
stepping deliberately
mountain trails unfold

another vote for "First day hike always sucks big"

Writing haiku kept me busy during a storm in the Little Five Lakes basin in 1990.
http://www.sierrahiker.com/FiveLakes1990/index.html