A Year of Haikus
I was planning to do a long-form piece about my experience writing a haiku every day for a year (well, almost every day… Sometimes I had to play catch-up after missing a few). I would have taken the time to explain how they have been a fantastic way of sharing things with my girlfriend, who has been putting up with me living in a different country, how coming up with them gets my ‘creative juices’ (shudders) flowing, but that sometimes it was a real struggle, especially after I’d been hit by a bus — stuff like that.
When I returned to the three hundred and sixty six little clusters of syllables, however, it struck me that a laboured examination of the process would be entirely the wrong way to go about it. The point of this kind of poetry is its brevity, after all, so I’ll let a few of mine (hopefully) speak for themselves instead.
What a year.
August 27th, 2019
A day distilled in
just seventeen syllables.
Well, here goes nothing…
September 14th, 2019
The old hymn machine,
breathing songs through many necks,
takes its final gasp.
October 25th, 2019
We took our shoes off,
but bare feet can’t ride the bus
with the autumn sand.
31st October, 2019
Here carving pumpkins,
scoops of October seeds — mush
as “Monster Mash” blares.
November 27th, 2019
Post toast roast; boozy
still after hours of slumber
falling off the bone.
December 25th, 2019
Festive cheer to all
men and women and new dogs,
wishing for turkey.
14th February, 2020
Buddha bowls for both;
the work of Piet Mondrian;
a lost EU pin.
23rd March, 2020
We’re now in lockdown:
a pre-recorded Boris
confirms it grimly.
30th March, 2020
Today Bill Withers
passed away at eighty-one.
An un-lovely day.
May 14th, 2020
Fat Lily ate
one third of my birthday cake.
She regrets nothing.
June 4th, 2020
Wisdom teeth are not
some great herald of knowledge.
They just fucking hurt.
July 19th, 2020
Come on, everyone
let’s “enjoy summer safely”.
No coughing allowed.
August 27th, 2020
This year I’ve learned that,
however gray your day seems,
there’s hidden colour.
