#NaHaiWriMo — trees

Branches dance
Shake in the wind 
Everything breaks 

*

How high and how wide 
Must we all grow to bear fruit
Or provide shelter 

*

What do you see? 

The people look like trees. 
Let us try again. 

#NaHaiWriMo 2025

February is National Haiku Writing Month, during which participants attempt to write at least one haiku every day (February being the shortest month).

I'll be participating again this year, though I may not always write a traditional haiku, allowing myself a little leeway to try some micropoems, or to ignore the supposed 5-7-5 rule/ format.

Recently, I've been reading about other waka forms that incorporate haikuic structures: katauta (5-7-7), sedoka (5-7-7-5-7-7), tanka (5-7-5-7-7), bussokusekika (5-7-5-7-7-7), choka (5-7-5-7-5-7-5-7-7), and haibun (a prose/poem with a haiku ending). Mayhaps some will even join me for a renga (a collaborative haiku sequence with alternating stanzas of 5-7-7 and 7-7)?

Once again, I'll be using the februllage prompts as a starting point.

Feel free to join me, or at least follow along!

#NaPoWriMo 2024 day thirty

1.    it’s third winter
      not so unusual
      despite our failing memory
 
2.     are we a mystery
      or a confusion?
 
3.     let them know the weight of you
      (i miss the weight of you)
 
4.     the days go by
      tickticktock
      and still all this
      desire
 
5.     (shhhh…)
 
6.     do you bear good fruit?
      i want to bear good fruit.
      and multiply.
 
7.     the tongue is a useful thing.
      some more than others.
 
8.     let us make raids on the articulate.
      choose which sounds
      require more attention.
      all the -ings.
 
9.     I HATE WALLS
      I LOVE WELLS
      I HAVE/ WILL
 
10.  what things do you only do at night?
      why or why not?
 
11.  “with my body
      i thee worship”
 
12.  wrangling words
      is dangerous work
 
13.  have i
      told you
      how much
      i love you
      poetry?
 
14.  can poetry
      be a form
      of justice?
      let us demand
      the right use
      of language
 
15.  shhhh…
 
16.  i’m not the same man
      i was before.
      truly. i have witnesses.
 
17.  I estimate I have owned twenty thousand books over my lifetime.
      I probably have four thousand books in my basement right now.
      I burned several thousand books in a bonfire one night in a park.
 
18.  I’d say at least 40.
 
19.  (What’s the story?)
      Because there’s always a reason.
      The pathways grow slowly, then
      wildly or manicured.
      Like gardens. Or myths.
 
20.  See with what
      Large letters
      I have written to you
      With my own hand!
 
21.  (are) all poems are about loss?
 
22.  (are) all poems are an essay on longing?
 
23.  (are) all poems are a seduction?
 
24.  shhhh…
 
25.  it’s a delicate surgery,
      this picking at words:
      finding the fragments;
      binding them up.
      a gift. or a weapon.
 
26.  poetry gives you wings?
      but you get to choose?
      whether to fly?
      and how high?
 
27.  The endings of things
      are very important.
      Because seeds.
 
28.  i made this for you
 
29.  are we a mystery
      or a confusion?
 
30.  maybe the Last Supper
      was the first supper.
 

#NaPoWriMo 2024 day twentynine

 

#NaPoWriMo 204 day twentyeight