browser life

Went to another free poetry workshop at church. Tonight's featured South Dakota's poet laureate. Whereas the one I went to in June emphasized how poetry makes you feel and showcased poets of whom I had never heard, this one was about the mechanics of poetry and used mostly familiar examples. My personal preference is to balance the emotion with the structure, but there was a writing exercise tonight that gave me a much-needed jump start.

We were instructed to compose some haiku. I hadn't done any in 25 years, back when I was in college sitting under one of those ginormous maple trees dotting the campus. We could either do traditional Japanese style, which is three lines with a syllable count of 5-7-5 usually about nature, or non-traditional variable syllable count on any subject. I went with traditional structure and varied the subject matter.

I struggled at first, but managed to come up with two during the workshop and two more after I got home. If I am smart, I will keep doing these on a regular basis to stay motivated. But I do realize how easily I get distracted, so I make no promises. At any rate, before they get buried in my ever-growing pile of unfinished projects, here are the ones I wrote tonight:


Naked branches dance
in a mournful cloudy sky -
a squirrel chuckles.


Spinning ferris wheel
alights the top of the world -
the earth is dizzy.


Hugging, comforting,
Mama bear against the wind -
My purple hoodie.


Slanted by the gale
and young limbs made old too soon -
shuffling to my car.