Haiku about haiku

A celebration of seventeen carefully chosen syllables

A celebration
Of seventeen carefully
Chosen syllables

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DISCLAIMER:

Haiku is an incredible art form, worthy of the highest respect.

What qualifies as haiku for the purposes of this article limits the form to only this: 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 configuration. ¹

This highly simplified version of haiku turns out to be one of the best ways for me to find the essence of an idea.

Seeking, distilling
The essence, the truth, the why
Simple, unadorned

When I’m trying to clarify something in my mind, I will often write a series of words, and phrases. I’ll then stare at it for a bit. Inevitably, I start counting syllables, and then move some of the words and phrases into a haiku.

I find this editing and honing activity can really help to boil things down.

Spilling ink

Sometimes a phrase will enter my head. Or maybe the same few words keep appearing and it feels like a message.

In January, I wrote this in response to a prompt from Beth Kempton. For weeks I had been thinking about ‘spilling ink’ as a way to describe the writing process. After years of writing exclusively on my computer I had been shifting to writing on paper, and then writing on my iPad using an Apple Pen.

I designed my very favourite colour of purple ink with exactly the right pen properties, and had come to love writing, with the wildest, loopiest handwriting directly on to the screen. Strangely, ‘spilling ink’ on my iPad became the most organic way for me to write directly from my soul.

Fresh ink on the page
My soul, without fear, spilling
True blue from my pen

I know the concept of spilling ink as a descriptor is not original to me. I’m pretty sure this phrase occurs in Beth’s book The Way of the Fearless Writer: Mindful wisdom for a flourishing writing life. I’ve just embraced it.

The other day, while waiting to get my hair cut, a phrase passed through my mind: My lifeblood is like purple ink, spilling onto the page.

A bit morbid, but I liked it. It felt true to me. I quickly made a note in my phone, and returned to it later in the day.

This is my lifeblood
Purple ink, ribbon of dreams
Spilling on the page

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Dreams of ink are everywhere

Yesterday as I was looking back on previous writing to gather a few more examples of haikus I had written as writerly therapy, I found this line from Muriel Barbery’s A Single Rose:

Everyday is a new dream of ink.

Yes. Dreams and ink. Hope and writing. The future and the present.

Truly… Purple ink, ribbon of dreams.

JL Orr | Paradox & Sea Glass

I’m based in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia in Canada

I’m currently celebrating the one year anniversary of my other publication, The Travel Paradox. Maybe stop by for a visit.

In case you missed it…

Here’s a post from January, in celebration of World Handwriting Day, on the same topic.

1. Classic haikus focus on the natural world, observe a moment in time, and have two distinct parts. And no, this isn’t a technical description, nor could I defend it to anyone who actually knows what they are talking about.