What better time than now

Comics for the moment

Listen to the music of leaves.

In light breeze they’re wind chimes. When the wind picks up they shake like a tambourine. In a rainstorm they’re hit like a drum kit. And as the storm clears they’re left on the ground in profound silence.

Leaves and music are defined by their impermanence. Nothing gold can stay, said Robert Frost.

Walking in my neighborhood I saw a leaf suspended in midair, hanging a few feet above the ground. Was it defying gravity?

I looked closer. It was held by the thread of an unseen spiderweb.

Haiku is a poetry form that tries to snag a universe with the thin, gossamer web of three lines and fourteen syllables.

In morning fog, spiderwebs are revealed. Their lattice patterns hang heavy with liquid droplets, like necklaces of tiny jewels.

Fog both conceals and reveals.

A walk to school becomes a journey into a mystical landscape.

Mist-ical, even.

If you wake early in November, you’ll still find lawn sprinklers running at dawn. The air is chilly—finally. The autumn sky is a pastel gradient of color. And the moon has not yet gone to bed.

Why is it so hard to take a picture of the moon?

It’s round, bright, big as a dinner plate—until its photo is taken. Then it recedes, shy, a tiny point of reflected light.

The full moon fades and sets by the time the walk is over.

Come evening it will rise again, hovering huge at the horizon, demanding to be noticed, but not photographed. The moon needs so much attention, it wakes us up.

The leaves, the clouds, the changing sky. It’s all happening NOW.

Now, now, now, now, now.

Capture it in a sketch, a poem, maybe even a photograph—if you’re lucky.

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I’m drawing daily haikomics for my fourth annual Poetry Comics Month. It’s been a joy to notice the overlooked details of my surroundings. Follow along in my Notes to read each one.

Looking for a holiday gift?

• Check out my new poster shop at grantsnider.com/shop.

• Pick up signed copies of my books from my local independent bookstore, Watermark Books & Cafe.

• Get a copy of POETRY COMICS, a finalist for the Delaware Diamonds Award, Kansas’s William Allen White Award, and the Garden State Children’s Book Award.