Dangerous Weather

The second edition of Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku (Gualala, California: AHA Books, 2013) features nearly 5,000 haiku written from 1993 to 2013. It contains the following poem (from page 175):

dangerous weather

such a perfect day for stepping

off a cliff

Later in the book, in the “New Year” section, she offers the following ten poems under the heading of “Death Thoughts” (from pages 279–280):

a bird’s flight

and then I am gone

and forgotten

no holiday

on this I chose

to exit

death

the sea in me

goes home

dew comes and goes

it’s hard to believe

I will follow

ebb tide

we thought we had time

but it was gone

I ask the sea

to keep me

under a rock

meals cooked

and the lives I gave

the right to take mine

the fire laid

down in the sea

me

the suicide

even the sea won’t keep

beach debris

when I die

it will be

my ocean

As these poems intimate, Jane Reichhold anticipated her chosen way to die at least thirteen years beforehand. According to the World Weather Online Historical Almanac, the weather in Gualala, California on 28 July 2016 was dry and sunny. The sun rose at 6:12 a.m. and set at 8:28 p.m. The high temperature was 92 degrees Fahrenheit, with a low of 67. The humidity was 70 percent, and a gentle breeze blew mostly from the south at about 3 to 7 miles per hour, gusting to 15 miles per hour at about 3:00 p.m. There were no clouds in the sky. The only dangerous weather was elsewhere.

news of her death . . .

this year’s falling leaves

a little more lonely