I have an haiku up today at Extract(s). The photo that accompanies it is an original one, taken while standing at the top of Enchanted Rock on a cloudy day.
This haiku came out of my small stones practice. Not all of my small stones are haiku — in fact, most of them aren’t — but some of them do end up being in haiku form. It was composed during that brief, blessed rainy season.
There was a time in my life when I didn’t enjoy writing haiku, but now I find it one of my favorite forms. And in the past few years, I feel like my longer poems are really inspired by the compression of haiku. I like to fit my words into tight spaces, and give a rich image while still managing to be sparse. There is so much concentration that goes into a haiku (both in the sense of compression and attention), and that’s why I’ve come to adore them so much.
Ooo, I like that! And quite honestly so, speaking as someone who usually mocks haiku. That’s really great.
I don’t do much with haiku. Since not many magazines accept haiku, I’d rather write poems I can eventually have published. It’s fun to do once in a while, though. I have a couple of friends who post haiku on their Facebook updates every day.
Abbie Johnson Taylor, Author of
We Shall Overcome
and
How to Build a Better Mousetrap:
Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver
http://abbiejohnsontaylor.com/blog