by Kelly

I was very excited when I unwrapped my box of Haikubes!

What a perfect tool for undoing writer’s bloc, I thought. Or, I thought, what a fun conversation starter to haul out when friends come over.

The box is full of dice-like cubes. Most of the cubes are filled with words you can use to compose haiku. There are, though, two cubes that offer direction.

For example, to get the game going, you roll the “direction” cubes. You might end up with directions to write a haiku about “a vision for” “my romantic life.” Or maybe the directions will tell you to write a haiku about “a desire for” “my work life.”

However, shortly after opening my Haikubes and dumping them out all over the floor, I started to wonder what was going on with the word choices I was finding.

I kept picking up cubes, searching for words that would help me compose a haiku about “a reflection on” “my childhood”, but instead of finding anything that would help me craft a poem about my growing up years, I kept finding words like “anal” and “oozing” and “lurid.” Exactly what kind of childhood did the makers of Haikubes think I’d had???

Okay, okay. There were indeed plenty of words I could have used to write a haiku about my girlhood, like “brother” and “gleeful,” but after zeroing in on all the words I’ll call “suggestive,” I just couldn’t get my head out of the gutter!

And I get it. As a conversation starter, Haikubes is guaranteed to get a bunch of friends laughing. All it takes is a glass of wine to make the combination of the words “finger”, “ass,” and “ouch” seem outrageously funny.

But sitting at home, by myself, in my office, looking for a way out of my writer’s bloc, Haikubes just didn’t feel very accessible.

Or maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. Maybe Haikubes did indeed get me out of my writer’s bloc funk. After all, here I am typing up words about it.

For me, the verdict is still out on Haikubes. I never was able to compose a haiku I liked with its cubes. So instead of sharing a haiku I wrote out of Haikubes, I’ll leave you with a picture of a bunch of the cubes and let you see if you can craft one you like.

by Kelly

in 9 p.m. sun

neighborhood kids start their game

of red light green light