I wrote my first Haiku the other day. Twenty-five years ago when I first heard about them I thought: “Oh, what a cute little poem.” Try as I might back then, I just couldn’t make one. I finally conceded defeat. When we were learning about forms in graduate school I wrote another Asian form but I was not good at that either. Sijo, I think it was. It doesn’t matter now because I still don’t write them. I have a friend who writes lovely ones. About then I decided that I really didn’t like writing forms and abandoned all attempts at them. After all, why waste good writing time trying to squash words and thoughts into a form? So I left them alone.
A few years ago I took a workshop with our poet laureate and she had us try our hands at sonnets. That was another truly awful attempt. I had the syllable count and rhyme scheme correct but the content … Oh, my!
She also had us try a limerick. I know how they are supposed to go, and I’ve certainly read my share, but the share I read were mostly naughty and they kept intruding. Thank goodness I wasn’t taking the workshop for a grade. I would have failed miserably. So, another form down the tubes.
The other day was a beautiful sunny day. The slant of the sun was getting toward evening. The grass was shimmering and the horses were galloping across the field. Suddenly words started to come. A few tweaks to the syllabification and I had my first Haiku.
Six horses gallop
across fields of melting snow.
Spring sun glints off hooves.
They came thick and fast after that. I was seeing Haiku material everywhere, and in a few days I had made five of them. Nature seems to be a generous provider of subject and I live in the country, sort of, so I am in the perfect place.
A few days later a limerick popped into my head. I won’t share it because it’s not exactly PC, and I wouldn’t want to offend anyone if I can avoid it. I had been watching a number of nutrition shows on television and suddenly, there it was. Full grown and ready to be written down. That’s one. And it may be the only one because I ‘m still struggling with naughty.
