Jane-ku

I really love the revision process, re-versioning, etc. So I was drawn to this interview excerpt from Jane Reichhold on one of her haiku ...

Then, one day while throwing a pot on a kick wheel outdoors under a huge pine tree, I had a deep shock. Just as I was pressing my thumbs into the spinning ball of wet, slippery clay, as the walls were just beginning to rise up by pressing against my palms, a mockingbird gave a long, clear whistle. In that second, the ball of clay moved into being a walled vessel. I recognized that I was capable of experiencing one of these profound moments these Japanese masters had evidently felt, and now all I had to do was to put that moment into a haiku. I am still doing it and still not happy with any of my many, many versions. Just last week, during a sleepless night, I was working with the latest version: -

spinning clay
the mocking bird whistles
up a pot

or

spinning clay
the mocking bird whistles up
sides of a bowl

or

centered
the mocking bird whistles up
a clay bowl