Three by Threes

Tea: Arctic Storm

Music: Keiko Matsui, "Water Lily", "Forever Forever" and "Wildflower"

Time: Night.

It's Thursday, which means it was teaching day with the fourth graders.

Today's theme: Haiku. And not that tensionless 5-7-5 crap, written by textbook writers. The biggies, as translated by Robert Hass.

One by Basho:

A caterpillar,
this deep in fall --
still not a butterfly.

One by Buson:

Green plum --
it draws her eyebrows
together.

And one by Issa:

I envy
that child being scolded:
end of the year.

"So what," I asked, "do all three of these poems have in common?"

Hands shot up at almost every desk, with the same answer: "They don't make sense."

Oh, fun. Time to earn my volunteer's pay.

We started with the basics: Three lines (actually, two and one); no more than 17 syllables; and some sort of seasonal reference.

Then, the payoff point: "Each of these poems uses a few words to tell a much bigger story."

More blank looks. But we -- and I do mean we -- worked through it. And one by one, the light bulbs went on.

(No, I'm not going to spell out the stories. You're bright, or you wouldn't be here.)

So was the whole lesson -- including an assignment/exhortation to observe the world for a week and come up with at least one haiku based on that observation -- a bit heavy for nine- and ten-year-olds?

I don't think so. Kids are smarter than textbook writers think. Fourth graders get that seasons change, that moments happen and then are gone and that the stories are in the details.

And they can count to 17. They'll be fine.