As I have nothing else to do (joke!), and wanting to add something to my woeful practice of mindfulness, I have set myself a little challenge:
To write at least one haiku a day for 100 consecutive days.
What are haiku? Haiku is a Japanese verse in three lines with 5, 7 and 5 syllables respectively. Traditionally haiku are mood poems and don’t use any metaphors or similes; however beginners, like me, are usually start with just the restriction of the number of lines and syllables. There are many online collections of haiku, for example here, including those of the Japanese master Matsuo Basho.
I started this challenge last Monday, so I’m now seven days in and it is time to record the first results. In total I have written 16 haiku in the seven days – some good, many not so good. Here is one from each day showing a variety of ideas and subjects.
Cicadas singing
Long through sultry summer nights.
Thunder before dawn.
Tuesday 2 July
Sunshine streaming in
windows open wide for air.
Why such depression?
Wednesday 3 July
Hickory dickory dog,
rough enough through cough, lough and chough.
Cork works porky quark.
Thursday 4 July
Useful man, Paddy:
Build, fix, repair, recycle.
Moonshine of the bog.
Friday 5 July
Wispy cirrus cloud
Against Dutchman trouser blue.
Metal bird glides by.
Saturday 6 July
Sticky, sticky day
Energy drained away.
Starry, starry night.
Sunday 7 July
Seven round a table;
Friends’ dinner party makes mirth.
Mountainous paella.
Well no-one said that haiku had to make sense – at least not modern haiku; the traditional style seems more rigid!
I’m not going to post an offering every day, as some proponents of 100 day challenges do, but I shall attempt to post at least weekly updates. And I’m logging all the output, whether posted here or not, so who knows what might happen at the end.