Poetry Month Prep

As April approaches, I’m going to be focusing my poetry on haiku. One helpful thing about writing haiku is that it requires me to include many of the key elements of poetry: brevity, emotion, nature, and a celebration of the moment.

Recently, I rediscovered one of my favorite collections of haiku poetry. Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart by Patricia Donegan had fallen behind some other books and I had thought I lost it. Having it back and reading it nearly daily is one way I try to stay centered. And the haikus are inspiring. Both as a poet and as a human. Here are a few examples…

no flower can stay
yet humans grieve at dying —
the red peony

— by Edith Shiffert

the warbler poops
on the slender
plum branch

— by Onitsura Uejima

the shell i take
the shell it takes
ebb tide

— by Vincent Tripi

Such beauty in capturing a moment and seeing into the moment with wisdom, humor, perspective, or whatever the poet wants to share. Only the first haiku follows the 5-7-5 syllable rule; relatively few in the book do. I like the structure but others experiment with sharing moments not bound to syllable lengths.

I entered a haiku contest today at the Washington Post. Follow the link if you have one that has something to do with life in Washington D.C.

Here’s one I wrote years ago that had enough of a Washington D.C. theme to it in order to enter.

pink teardrops fall from
magnolia limbs — helplessly
form cemetery

And another I wrote today…

distant train whistle
calls to nearby fire siren —
a chat of warnings

Write On!

P.S. Here are a couple public service announcements. First, if you know of a young person who is looking for a chance to write over the summer, follow this link to the Red Cedar Writing Project website. The Spartan Writing Camp has several options for students in grades 1-8 and Greenrock Writers Retreat has two options for students in grades 9-12. Also, if you are looking for a great read, I suggest Michelle Obama’s Becoming book; I’m entranced by her writing style and by her telling of the story of her upbringing and rise to the White House.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *