Haiku, Part Two

I promised a friend that I was going to try to write one haiku per day on this Bodø-Jan Mayen-Iceland journey. As has been my tendency throughout life, I got lazy and blew off the task.

So while on watch this afternoon I whipped out my little moleskine (oh, you cheeky monkey, you!) and scribbled. As with my past haiku efforts, you are hereby warned not to proceed unless you can stomach infantile poetic efforts by one with less than zero skill in such matters. With that caveat out of the way, here goes...

(NOTE: For those who aren't familiar with haiku, this is actually several attempts (17, to be exact) since haiku is a three-line poem of strict format.)

Blue sky overhead
Fog obscures the horizon
Alone on the sea

Deep blue underneath
white wings stretching to the sky
Bird sails to the sun

White specks on deep blue
Bird on the sea, boat in the sky
Same destination

Southward on the wind
Iceland hides in the distance
Warm sun on our backs

Our shadow points south,
hull and sails on the same course.
North Pole hides my heart

Great Circle route or
shortest line between two loves?
Boat points south, heart north

Southward bound to where?
On a sphere, all paths lead home
North to the future

Spherical planet
Going south means going north
leaving, arriving

Small blue dot in space
This is all we'll ever know:
grain of sand and sea

Fulmars squawk, sea rolls
fog drifts before northern sun
mares' tails point southeast

Ear flaps up, gloves off
north wind cold but we head south
summer has returned

Summer has returned?
Or: we head south to summer?
Far south, it's winter

Summer and winter:
Strange names on a calendar
with no start or end.

Ear flaps up, gloves off
sun shines through long northern night.
Birds prep for flight south

Winter is long, dark
Birds stock up for migration
Sun shines high in north

Solstice is now past
sun dips below northern edge
Earth returns southward

Solstice may be gone
sun warm on upturned faces
winter's not here...yet.