My Third Short Poem Week

I did a couple of poetry weeks last season and enjoyed them immensely, so I thought I would give it another go. The first form I tied was the American Sentence: the second was a Welsh quatrain form called Englyn Cyrch. One of the things that spurred this return to short form poetry was that someone tweeted out one of my Englyn Cyrch last week.

I enjoy the “mathy-ness” of short poem forms. When you only have seventeen or twenty-some syllables to say a thing, you have to choose every word carefully. My intention is to make these particular very formal styles sound as conversational as I can. Sometimes I even manage it! When I applied to Lesley’s MFA program, my cover letter was intentionally exactly 500 words long. It would have come off as cheesy if any of the language had seemed forced, but I don’t think it did: I got accepted into the program, at any rate, and have since graduated with an MFA in creative nonfiction.

Having done other sorts of short poem, I thought I would take this opportunity to try my hand at not haikai, not hokku, but haiku. I find, as I research the form, that to this point my “haiku” have been more a variant of the American Sentence than actual classic haiku. There are a couple of rules that I forgot, though I remember being taught them in elementary school. To wit:

1. A haiku should be about a particular season.
2. It should contain a single image
3. It should evoke a particular emotion
4. For my purposes here, at least, there should be no enjambment

In addition to the math, there are content rules! That sounds like fun, and it turns out it is, though it may not seem that way considering how dark these haiku are turning out to be. I hate winter: I tell everybody I’m Seelie, and it is definitely that half of the year — between Beltane and Samhain — when I am happiest. I experience seasonal affective disorder and I’ve sometimes been very depressed in the cold, dark months. Consider these haiku my attempt at catharsis.

If you’re feeling inspired, I invite you to post your own haiku in the comments here. And keep an eye out: I’ve invited a couple of friends to contribute a haiku each. Kelly Fig Smith‘s poem appeared earlier today, making her the first person other than myself to contribute to this blog. Tomorrow, Stacy LeVine‘s haiku will grace this page. I’m very excited to share their work with you.