Poetry Friday and Fun with The Haiku Anthology

poetry friday logoRenee Tulippe at No Water River has this week’s round up!

 

Months ago Diane Mayr graciously guided my reading for learning more about haiku. I’ve been sipping at The Haiku Anthology before bed, rather like a cup of hot tea. It’s comforting to read timeless observations of the natural world when everything in 2014 seems in turmoil.

haiku_anthology
Image via Amazon.com

The other night I was nearing the end of the book. I grabbed a notebook and pen, opened the anthology, and copied down a first line — randomly selected. Then I jotted down two more lines. I quickly churned out several haiku drafts, then moved on to longer poems. It was the perfect way to warm up my writing muscles.

In the dim recesses of my memory, I *think* I remember hearing Ron Koertge speak at an SCBWI event, and I think he recommended writing haiku for just this purpose. He also talked about writing haiku in the classroom as a group exercise to warm up for in-class writing assignments.

If you don’t own The Haiku Anthology, I highly recommend it. Here are some of the first lines I used, just in case you want to have some haiku fun.

freshly fallen snow

spring rain

a bitter morning

heat of the day

long winter night

morning surf

summer afternoon

the silence

***

Here are a couple of my drafts:

 

summer afternoon
only the cicadas
have energy
 
heat of the day
cannot penetrate
the old adobe
 
 

Author: Keri

11 thoughts on “Poetry Friday and Fun with The Haiku Anthology

  1. I haven’t got that particular haiku anthology yet (it’s on my list). I like your method of using the first line from the haiku to jump-start a haiku of your own. My own method is to copy a haiku from a book into my composition book, and to use the original poem as a model.

  2. Two admirable haiku, Keri! I’m glad you like the anthology. If I could only recommend one haiku book, it would be that one.

    1. Ah, high praise from my haiku mentor! thanks, Diane! I’ve loved the book and I’m so glad you encouraged me to get it. Now I can turn my attention to some of the other titles I picked up from your list!

  3. Well done, Keri! I especially like Summer Afternoon. So here’s some extra motivation for you: how about being my guest in the Haiku Garden on October 10th? All I would need is a haiku from you (any subject) by Monday morning, 10/6. Drop me an email at Michelle (at) MichelleHBarnes (dot) com to let me know if you’re interested.

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