I’m an English teacher and writer living in Chicago who has been composing haiku for five years or so. Though I’ve composed haiku for some years now, Haiku Streak is the start of new string of daily haiku.
For me, writing haiku is a daily meditative process. Some days the results are good, and some days not. However, the perspective of a haiku writer continually renews the world and my perception of it. I write haiku to stay connected to nature and living.
help help help…please sir…dont mind me..i know i am an irritating guy asking too many questions….cant help…:(
if you feel i am too much then delete this comment..but do help me…
Not at all, not at all. I appreciate your curiosity and want to help. Please keep visiting and asking as many questions as you like.
I started my Daily Haiku as a discipline to encourage me to keep the blog going…forces me to visit once a day, and once there I clear the backlog of pub visits or social differences noted during the day or several days previous. Glad to see someone else, perhaps a bit more serious about the task, is at it as well.
The practice doesn’t have to be serious, just practice. Like you, I’m just trying to clear backlogs, and it’s great to have company. Thanks for your visit. Come back and leave a link so I—and my few readers—can find you.
Hey, I found you! You forgot to include your URL on your comment.
The site is lovely. Is that one of your paintings on the masthead? If so, how did you do that? It is so intricate. It’s fantastic.
One question I have is about commenting on haiku. It’s such a pure form of writing that I often feel that commenting is just plain wrong on haiku. What do you think? Can you provide guidance?
(BTW, I also sometimes have trouble commenting on other forms of poetry. Often I feel like all I can say is “Wow.” To do anything longer feels almost like I’m being too analytical rather than just allowing the words to hit me.)
Leaving my URL is an etiquette question for me. I would hate to have you think I’m visiting your site just to plug my own… though it is really great to have you visit!
You’re right, the masthead is a detail from one of my paintings. Like most of the art I do, it’s pen and ink combined with an ink wash. Some colored ink runs in some ink washes–the challenge is how to combine them. I’m rarely certain exactly what will happen, but sometimes, as with this painting, I get lucky.
It may be different for different poets, but I’ve never minded a single comment on posted poems, including comments that alert me to a distracting word or clunky line. Learning what moved a reader is especially useful, and, when I read a poem I like in a blog, I feel a pull to say what I enjoyed in or about it.
Though haiku are pure, occasionally their resonance encourages speech. Like you, I don’t have much to say about haiku most of the time. They seem complete and need no commentary. But, answering only for myself again, a “nice” or “thank you” isn’t an intrusion at all and doesn’t mar the original. What would you do if you were there reading or listening to a haiku in person? You might say “hmm” or “oh” or “I like that.” I suspect most writers–especially in the crowded blogosphere–appreciate knowing someone is out there doing that. I do, anyway.
And “Wow” is a wonderful comment.
Starting over as I am, I don’t have many visitors, and I’m grateful you found me. I hope you’ll visit again.
Just curious. I love haiku, and was wondering if there’s a way to put a Daily Haiku in a sidebar widget. I’m at planetjan.wordpress.com
On the widget page (under “appearance”), one of the options is “text.” When you add that widget to your sidebar, it gives you the chance to add a text box to your sidebar. I haven’t done it, but I’ve seen it there and experimented with it. I hope it works!
David,
Am enjoying your Haiku. It seems there are many lesser haiku writers with blogs. It’s nice to find yours. They lead to further thought and visuals, which are important to me. Beautiful stuff! I’ve been a huge fan of Richard Wright’s haiku for years. Have you seen them?
I’ll put your link in my poetry category. I’ll be back. Kevin
Thank you for your kind words. I haven’t read Richard Wright’s haiku, though I’m fan of his work. I’ll check it out!
—D
David! What a nice blog you have here, I really enjoyed your haiku and I’ll certainly come back to read more
Thank you! Please visit again…
wow, thanks for including me on your blogroll. i am deeply humbled.
I really enjoy your work. I don’t get to visit sites as often as I should–it is enough expenditure of time to write here and my other blog–but when I have an idle moment, I like to see what you’re up to.
I just found your blog, via readomatic, and I’m enjoying it very much.
I like your description of haiku as resonant. Some haiku resonates with me and some doesn’t. Yours does.
Thanks for sharing it.
-Steve
Thank you for such a nice compliment– some days my standards are higher than others, but I am always trying.
check out tinywords.com
you might like it
–Peter
Very cool. Perhaps I’ll submit sometime…