Honku

Today is my first day at the college I commute to, about an hour away. I'm teaching my favorite spring class, the one the students call "sex in literature" (its official title is "Relationships and Dialogues"). After class, I have to drive home to pick up my kids at their school, and then we'll get back in the car to drive to Walker's soccer game which is, today, at the farthest destination possible for his league--2 hours away. So by the end of the day, I'll have been in the car for at least six hours.

It is a day for Honku, The Zen Antidote to Road Rage. Whenever he would feel road rage coming on, the author, Aaron Naparstek, says, "instead of muttering wrathfully to myself, I'd try to observe the scene dispassionately and construct a honku about it. It turned moments of annoyance into flashes of clarity, perspective, and amusement. I'd seemingly invented a new form of automotive anger management." A Honku, of course is a haiku about driving.

Here's the honku I'm contemplating as I set out on my first journey this morning:

Morning commuters
follow measured lines, honking--
how like geese we are

Maybe that one's a little autumnal for this time of year. Here's another:

April signs of spring--
nesting doves, blossoming trees,
blood-spattered roadkill

My hope is to avoid any kind of death on the road today!