heron took flight
escaping conversation
with garrulous wind
One of the things I love about our new home is the heron weather vane. A few weeks ago we got great gusting winds that rattled windows, broke branches, and set our wind chimes howling. Our heron escaped its perch, taking flight for forty feet to land on the opposite side of the barn. The beautiful wing tips were bent in its snowy landing.
I wanted to write about the heron because today is National Bird Day. But as I reworked the poem to its present form, I saw parallels.
ESCAPE: Over the past year, I’ve been writing haiku that do not even remotely fit the 5-7-5 format I’ve generally adhered to because I’ve wanted to challenge myself to see how much I could say with as few words as possible. (You may have already noticed there are only four syllables in the first line of this poem. I pestered myself: Do I add “the” or “our” at the outset of the first line? Or maybe a single-syllable adjective: brave, bold, bored?)
Be prepared for more free-form haiku in the coming year.
On New Year’s Day, a dear friend (Thank you, Phyllis!) shared an article about writing haiku. It inspired me to challenge myself to write a haiku a day this year. I haven’t nailed down my “rules” for this challenge, but one is: I don’t have to have seventeen syllables. ESCAPE!
GARRULOUS WIND: In this case, it’s my own thoughts as well as adherence to seventeen syllables.
Be prepared for more free-form haiku in the coming year. For fun, I’ll share the first four days of 2023's haiku.
sips of words
dipping into my dreams
a bigger ladle
warmer rain
reveals a muddy drive
furrowed as my brow
citrus pop dropped
on velvety soup
my tongue awakens
squirrelly,
contemplation
was hard work
Happy New Year and thanks for reading!
PS: This post was originally published to the Haiku Thursday list 5 January 2023. To read haiku and essays in real time, join the Haiku Thursday list.
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