This installment of the secondhand series marks the second appearance of Benjamin Russell, the kind of poet whose work often leaves me wishing I’d written it first.

His previous entry, “Haiku for Sally,” is here. And you can read much more of his fine writing by visiting his site Agitation of Hands. Strength of Words.

To see all secondhand contributions to date, please click here. And if you’re interested, I encourage you to contribute a haiku or short poem of your own — click here to find out how.

Tears

Emptying my eyes
of all the salty lies you
would have me believe.

Comments

• October 17, 2009, Cerebrations writes: If I were to apply the meaning I assume to my life, it would be with regards to my reaction to negative feedback that was, according to my friends and to my inner self, untrue. The salt stings and the lies dig deep.
• October 17, 2009, howard writes: that seems to be a fair interpretation. the beauty of this haiku, to me, is that it can be seen from various perspectives and reasonably apply to all of them.
• October 20, 2009, susans writes: I loved this. It reminded me of a very bad part in my life which I am still trying to heal. I have written poetry in my time and had it published, but could never master the art of a haiku.
• October 20, 2009, howard writes: thanks for stopping by, Susan!
  
  i think you could probably handle the haiku fairly well -- though i tend to think of it as something to practice rather than something to master.
• October 21, 2009, susans writes: Cannot seem to log in, but I did have problems with haikus. For some reason I can write long meandering poems that have been published when I was in college- long things that were written in the style of Eliot or Plath and people said were good but the short things... nope!
  
  Susan.
• October 21, 2009, susans writes: if you are interested, there are some poems I put up on my blog once when I had a real bad case of writer's block. They were written back when I was in college, and are relatively short for me.
  
  I hope this is ok, they read very fast.
  
  http://ifyouregoingthoughhellkeepgoing.blogspot...
  
  http://ifyouregoingthoughhellkeepgoing.blogspot...
  
  http://ifyouregoingthoughhellkeepgoing.blogspot...
  
  posting another one up today....
• October 21, 2009, howard writes: thanks, Susan -- i will check them out