A poetry challenge popped up in my Instagram feed sometime last week and I promptly saved it. A fellow writer, Nicole Gulotta, is hosting it.

The prompts go through thirty days in August and revolve around life during COVID-19. It’s a beautiful way to document these weird times we’re living in. Plus, it will challenge me to write and post every day. Yesterday I wrote Day 1’s haiku on the car ride down to my parents’ house, and it changed the perspective of the poem itself.

Nicole has a Haiku Highlight on her Instagram profile and I gained some new knowledge on this form of poetry from it. I learned that 4-6-4 (4 syllables in the first line, 6 syllables in the second, and 4 again in the third line) sound more natural in English than the 5-7-5 form Japan follows.

I dabbled in poetry in high school my senior in the creative writing class I took. Senior year was an emotional roller-coaster in my family life. My aunt, my mom’s twin sister battle with cancer came to an end in October of 2008 and I think poetry became my way of putting words to my teenage feelings with grief and death and family.

I don’t know why I’m drawn to writing thirty haikus this month. I just know that I am and taking it for the nudge in the writing direction it is.

Posting my haikus here on the blog with help keep my blog posts consistent, but will also be a place to see the stories behind the poems and an insight into my poetry creative process, if that interests you. I am in love with people’s creative processes and the creativity that goes into making things.

30 days of haiku:

day 1 // “through the window”

day 2 // “a moment to myself”

day 3 // “social distancing”

day 4 // “a hope”

day 5 // “a worry”

day 6 // “raise your voice”

day 7 // “in the shade”

day 8 // “wearing a mask”

day 9 // “zoom”

day 10 // “looking forward to”

day 11 // “currently missing”

day 12 // “healing”

day 13 // “seasonal sip”

day 14 // “around the yard”

day 15 // “summer light”

day 16 // “in the garden”

day 17 // “cancelled trip”

day 18 // “listening”

day 19 // “around the house”

day 20 // “august heat”

day 21 // “at dusk”

day 22 // “lessons from quarantine”

day 23 // “favorite vegetable”

day 24 // “by the sea”

day 25 // “community”

day 26 // “afternoon thunder”

day 27 // “a good memory”

day 28 // “letting go of”

day 29 // “anticipating autumn”

day 30 // “through the window”

Follow the #30DayHaikuProject to see more of the poems on Instagram.

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Writing Process Notes:

8-2-2020:

// 48 mins this morning before church. dining room table. Hobbit Hole noises. Marco Polo video sent. some conversation with Ant. blog photos taken and sent to email/saved to laptop. total words: 430.