Trying my hand at Haiku

 

I went to a poetry reading in my neighborhood.  The cool thing is all kinds of poets, reading all kinds of poetry and being supportive.  We talked about, among other things, Haiku

One woman said she loved Haiku because she was an accountant, and it was all about numbers.  I suppose that is one way to approach it.  Unlike the woman who tried to tell me how to write (which I , in my petty little mind equated with her telling me how to feel, which NEVER goes over well. Ask my Ex about THAT) I smiled and bit my tongue.  Who am I to tell anyone how or what to write?  Art is an extension of who YOU are and to try to cram that creativity into a box is just wrong.  I stopped painting when my second-grade teacher criticized my painting because it had words in it. Who KNEW I was a trendsetter in text art?  I could have had a career!  Thanks Mrs. Gnotta!

Anyway, the conversation sent me back to a book-talk by Mystery writer and haikuist (is that a word?) Dale Furutani.  He explained something like the first and second lines form one thought and the second and third, another.  Almost always, haiku has a reference to nature so

I cannot recall
what toppings he said he liked
to be on pizza

Follows the form but is not a traditional haiku.  Is it a poem?  Well anything can be a poem if you think it is, but you won't see this in Poetry Quarterly  any time soon.

I decided to try to write a poem, following what I seem to remember Mr. Furutani said about it.

 

the moon is hung low
in the early autumn sky
silver clouds drift past

 

It's a start.  I am going to try to write other haiku, and build that muscle.