A Year in Haiku

Regular journaling or other kinds of record keeping have never motivated me much, let alone inspired any sort of commitment long term. Yet I've always felt a gnawing sense that I should engage with such an activity more whole-heartedly and for a more generous expanse of time than I have previously given myself. Sometime in late January of 2021, I read about ways to begin the journal habit, one of which was by writing in haiku--as in one haiku per day. And I thought I might could manage that. After all, I always rather enjoyed the challenge of collapsing thought, observation, or experience into seventeen syllables. Why not a haiku journal then?

So in February of 2021, I commenced my haiku journal. Definitely some of the haiku are more successful than others for a variety of reasons--content, word choice, structure,...my mood. Here, though, I will only post some of the ones better under the influence of serendipity. 

I shall include, as well, broad category labels to help focus how the content connects to various subjects that I actually carried all the way through to the written word. Some also have a title to help establish focus and/or I needed more syllables than the haiku format allowed.

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MORNING RUNS

Foot splash and leaf-held

drops buffet the hushed running-

in-rain melody     02/21/2021

Running has become

movement meditation to

still the world's noise     04/27/2021

After the rain, I

run wet roads shiny slick with

silver reflections     06/23/2021

ENVIRONMENT and NATURE

Aquamarine--a

turquoise sea slides into the

boundless cobalt deep     02/24/2021

Hard rain can't dance; its

constant collapse across my

metal roof resounds     02/28/2021

Sunlight, like feathers

dancing on a melody,

roused me from slumber     03/19/2021

On a night, the cool

of tropical winter turned

to summer swelter     03/25/2021

With their flaming sting,

fire ants tattoo my body

with itchy red welts     06/15/2021

Among the lions

and baboons, nature plays out

with pain and pleasure     10/26/2021

A house gecko no

longer serves my view of fine

tropical living     01/30/2022

PERSONAL and INTERIOR MONOLOGUE

Now and then I want

your arms, or your words, to hold

me away from this     02/25/2021

Master of rewrites

in life, in love, and always

in expectations     03/20/2021

MAIKA*

With you, Hawaiian

is a prayer, shaving cream

is "whip", and we laugh     04/01/2021

Dark chocolate can

salvage my perspective and

soothe my stressed spirit     04/07/2021

When one cuddles with

a quilt on the couch and cries

over NCIS     04/14/2021

DAVONA**

A lei--ti leaf and

white orchid--to celebrate

a life and passage     05/09/2021

Karen shares last days

with Davona, and I recall

decades of moments    05/11/2021

What I would do or

want you to do does not play

according to script     05/25/2021

To be "the other"--

one haole in the mass--

grants me perspective     05/30/2021

I like to hope I

am a strong woman; maybe

I am just scary     06/20/2021

"Bijou"--a word I

learn for Scrabble...until I

remember there's you     07/01/2021

If, while traveling,

I die overseas, leave my

exiting abroad     08/09/2021

FLIGHT ATTENDANT'S

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN EMERGENCY 

She ends, "Should I be

incapacitated,

please take me with you."     10/27/2021

A prayer...or a

curse--the energy of thought

and words on the world     11/07/2021

Thus I whispered my

thoughts in shimmers, hoping to

illuminate love     11/14/2021

A baby python

my great nephew names Rosy

Rootbeer Mannion     12/14/2021

NELSON, DESMOND, and ANTOINETTE

A catch in my throat

still rises when I think on

your stories, your words     12/30/2021

THE BIBLE

We eavesdrop on a 

text written for another

time and circumstance     01/15/2022

MLK quoted

with hope or in vain and we

should read all his words    01/17/2022

MIKE COSOLA

Birthdays like yours

dwell in memory and haunt all

my thoughts of what if     01/24/2022

POLITICS and CURRENT EVENTS

That former guy showed

democracy droops under

the lust for power     03/02/2021

We conceal our greed

and selfishness in worthy

words: "self-reliance"    03/06/2021

Decisions made, born

from our fears and greed and pride,

create this world now     03/07/2021

How we love, in spite

of anything and all else,

determines the end     03/17/2021

When treasured people

choose disparate voices and

journeys not my own     05/02/2021

One hundred and one

damnations--still too few for

all the counted lies     06/02/2021

What creates fear in

our minds and hearts and why are

we scared differently?     06/09/2021

The contortions we

employ to rationalize

and offset choices     08/16/2021

BODY and PHYSICAL WELL-BEING

Eating six slices--

crisp, crunchy--reminds me why

I can't buy bacon     03/12/2021

My back aches today

so no other body part

can function with grace    03/15/2021

VICKY***

With her dancer's grace,

she leads me to understand

my body's power     03/27/2021

Diminished somewhat

with accumulating years, my

body dances still     04/10/2021

Years elapse between

my eating of hotdogs and

I burp my regrets     06/03/2021

Pilates pushes 

me to relearn my body--

what's lost, what's wondrous    06/05/2021

My right hip speaks of

age and weariness of use

and I know my years     01/20/22

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*Maika: a student in a Pre-K classroom in which I occasionally sub

**Davona: my mother-in-law

***Vicky: my Pilates teacher

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By the end of a year of journaling in haiku with only three days missed, I realized that I actually wanted to continue with the daily written word in some fashion. So now I am writing a poem---very loosely speaking, mind you--for each day. How this endeavor continues to unfold remains a mystery!