The Joy of Haiku

I like poetry. Not all poetry. I’ve never really been a big fan of free-verse, for instance; it seems more like prose than true poetry. In fact, I tend to prefer the more structured forms (yes, even limericks). So it’s really no surprise that the form I’ve embraced the longest has been haiku.

Like many, I was introduce to haiku in elementary school. After all, it’s a brilliant tool to get young minds familiar with syllables, to help them learn to discipline themselves with a structure, doesn’t require rhyme, and, at just seventeen syllables, is short enough for the young to finish. True, I like the limits that the structure imposes, but I also like how much can be said with so little—at least with well-written haiku.

For the past few months, I’ve been really embracing haiku as a device to stay in touch with my family when I can’t be with them as much as I’d like. Whether absurd or serious, they all actually say the same thing: I love you, and I’m thinking of you. Funny thing is that I didn’t set out to write an endless babble of haiku.

It all started very innocently when I dropped a filled curb-side trash can on my big toe as I was heading off to work. Coming on the heels of having broken a toe only a short time before, I was a little annoyed with gravity. Once I got to work, it occurred to me to text Mary* with a report of this incident. For no good reason, I chose to do it in haiku:

Yeah, it’s not going to win any literary awards, but I got the message across in a non-bland sort of way. I sent another, and then another, and before long I found I was sending several haiku every week to Mary and the girls. The form lends itself so perfectly to the limit of text messages (especially with my phone at the time that wouldn’t let me send long messages). Over the past few months I’ve certainly had fun with it. Sometimes I’ll make some language diversions:

(For this last one, count the number of letters in each word.)

Sometimes I’ll be silly:

Or profound:

Or personal (no…not posting these). Often I’ll simply report or comment on something that’s happening in my life or the family’s. Like I said, I find it a marvelous way to send an “I love you” without having to be all boring and obvious (usually). My intent is not to be a great haiku poet. I have too much respect for poets to think that this little diversion has anything in common with their work other than a shared structure. No, this is a true labor of love…and this is, when you really think of it, what poetry does so well.

* Names have been changed

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