by Alison

I’ve been thinking about poetry lately.

Where do I want to go with haiku? What new areas do I want to explore? And specifically, do I want to stay exclusive with 5 - 7 - 5?

Then I happened upon the results of the fifteenth Caribbean Kigo Kukai haiku contest hosted by Gillena Cox and I became inspired.

The haiku in this contest are of the modern shorter variety. There is no strict 5 - 7 - 5 syllable count in these poems. Rather, the poems contain a kigo (seasonal reference) and most contain a break. In less than seventeen syllables!

The fifteenth Caribbean Kigo Kukai features the word “umbrella” as a prompt and it is interesting to read the variety of haiku that come out of using this word.

Here are a few that struck me.

This one, by Magdalena Dale, spoke to me with it’s simple universal appeal.

Red umbrella -
the sounds of rain drops
around us

I can imagine the color red and the music of the rain working together for this beautiful moment.

This one, by Bill Kenney, won first place.

summer rain
my umbrella
unopened

I love the brevity of language in this one while at the same time it says so much. The whole idea of contrasting caution with joyful spontaneity is so appealing. And in only 10 syllables!

This one, by Catherine J. S. Lee, won second place and is another favorite.

after divorce court –
still, she offers to share
her umbrella

I love how this one gets personal (we like to do that here at Haiku By Two) and I appreciate the way Lee melds the personal with the seasonal. It’s real and contains emotion and yet the emotion is grounded by nature. Fantastic!

Thanks to Gillena for hosting a wonderful Caribbean Kigo Kukai that has inspired me so! And keep checking the site. New contests with different kigo are posted on a regular basis. I hope to try my hand at the shorter haiku sometime soon although I must admit I am not sure where or how to start. If you have any suggestions, please share them in comments!

by Alison

“I can’t write haiku

without AC!” I complain.

What would Basho think?

by Kelly

Yesterday I had

a haiku moment. Then I

lost it. Now … nothing

by Kelly

haiku-less, that’s me

I’m all out of fresh ideas

haiku-less, that’s me

by Kelly

the darkness always

shocks — it’s so hard to wake up,

get up, motivate

by Alison

fuzzy-brained fatigue

has me craving coffee and

searching for haiku

by Kelly

pinching petunias

desperately seeking haiku

or serenity

by Kelly

creative ideas

have been lost and not yet found –

missing my mojo

by Kelly

This post combines two things seemingly at odds with each other: Fran Drescher and haiku.

Here’s the deal — I’ve been struggling to write this post. It was just supposed to be a quick-and-easy, short little review of a single chapter from Patrica Donegan’s book, Haiku Mind. Instead, it turned into a ball and chain.

I knew which chapter I wanted to write about, too. Chapter 75. It discusses creativity and imagination, two traits I respect, admire and hold dear as a writer.

The irony, though, is that I couldn’t find the creativity, the imagination, or the motivation to actually sit down and write anything on the topic.

To prove my point, I’ll tell you that it’s Saturday right now. It’s 2 pm. Yet publishing this entry was on my list of things to do for Monday afternoon. I’ve managed to push this off for five whole days.

But now I’m back on track, or at least I’m catching up, and I have Fran Drescher to thank.

She came through Minneapolis the other night, on a speaking circuit, and I went to hear her talk. One of things she talked about the process of developing “The Nanny”.

Apparently, just before the show performed its pilot episode, the producers got a call from an advertiser who was willing to buy a bunch of ad slots if the writers would change the nanny character (Fran) from being a Jewish girl to an Italian girl.

Fran refused, but not on the politics. She refused out of creative integrity. She could have played an Italian girl, she said. She could have pulled it off, but …

But not for the long-term. Fran Drescher as an Italian nanny wouldn’t have been as authentic, and in order for the show to have any chance at going the distance, it needed to ring true.

She said: I had to listen to the voice inside me because the voice inside me is the closest to my creator.

As soon as she said these words, I immediately connected them to chapter 75 in the book Haiku Mind, the chapter that is all about creativity and imagination.

The haiku that starts this chapter was written by Diane di Prima. It reads:

the inner tide –

what moon does it follow?

I wait for a poem.

The inner tide. The inner voice. They are flip sides of the same coin. The inner tide brings a wash of ideas; the inner voice communicates them. And each is as mysterious as our creator.

We wait for these messages from the beyond — for these ideas, these sparks, these words of guidance — knowing that they will come, but often left wondering exactly when they will show up.

If only we could put a lease and collar on our inner tide so that we could call it up at exact moments whenever we needed a little bit of extra juice.

Instead, we must learn that inspiration strikes in its own time. Our creativity doesn’t always peak when we want it to. And sometimes, words of wisdom are frustratingly silent.

But they come. They all come. In due time. They always do. The trick is, we have to keep ourselves open for their arrival.

Find Haiku Mind on Amazon:
Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart

Inspiration haiku excerpted from Haiku Mind by Patricia Donegan, (c) 2008. Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston. www.Shambhala.com.

by Alison

Colombia is

Doris Salcedo dreaming

of one thousand chairs