So…it’s been a relatively uneventful week in my life, and a very full week in my head. I started and re-started a post for this week several times that just never took form on the page the way it was playing out in my mind. We’re living in such uncharted times that it’s just a little hard to get clear words on the page. Life is a little too blurry.
I’ve been occasionally participating in this project which is sending out daily writing prompts during this period of Covid-19 induced isolation, and one of the prompts offered me an alternative for this week’s post. It was this, from Ann Patchett: to try writing in prescribed form, poetry. Prescribed forms offer guardrails when it’s hard to find our own edges. I appreciate that right now – I feel the need for some structure that will keep me moving forward and out of ditches right now. I am alternately enamored and confused by poetry, sometimes moved and sometimes left wondering what in the world the author is trying to say. But this was a good prompt for me this week. So, in lieu of the post I’m not able to compile this week, here are a couple haiku that say a tiny bit about what I’m thinking. If you compose any yourself, I’d love to read them.
Took twenty-five days
To miss going out in the world
Many weeks to go
Watched Benny & Joon
The movie at which I first
Held hands with a boy
Longing for loved ones
Shows how fortunate I am
So much worth missing
I hope you are all well and I’m holding space for every one of you in my heart.
I can’t say I’ve ever been a big fan of haiku – but I loved yours! I loved that it gave me a different lens to look through at this whole situation. And it inspired/challenged me to try to come up with a few of my own. Warning, I’m usually more of a Limerick girl – and I’m more than a little nervous about sharing! But here goes:
With so much at stake
Without health what else matters
Sick of politics
I have been amazed
By the many kindnesses
Of strangers and friends
Thanks for all your posts Sandi! Keep them coming!
Yes, this is exactly why I appreciate haiku! I’m not much of a poet but I feel like I can communicate a sense of the profound within its simplicity. These are a wonderful example of the strength of those 4-7-4 syllables.
“Sick of politics” sums it up. These are great! Thanks for sharing.