I started my 30 days of haiku writing more or less on a whim. A couple of brave students had shown me some of their creative writing, and it reminded me of my poetry writing days. Since I was out of practice - and busy - I decided to go with a relatively straight-forward form (not that I'm saying a good haiku is easy to write - it's just a bit shorter!) as opposed to the sonnets that I used to write in Maths lessons at school.
A month later, I am amazed by how profoundly helpful the discipline of writing 17 syllables of poetry every day has been. I have composed haiku on my bike, in bed, while invigilating tests. I have pondered the beauty of nature, the harshness of nature, the relevance of nature. I have scribbled a haiku in 5 minutes, and spent hours rearranging syllables in another. I have been taken by surprise (again) by the way in which the act of writing has birthed the reflective process.
I don't feel that I have made any remarkable contributions to the poetry world. I certainly don't feel like I have said anything particularly useful. But I have spent time with myself, thinking about my life in a different way.
I am certain that poetry season will come again.
