On January 1, 2014, I took a pledge along with 250 other writers and poets on Facebook to write and post a Haiku a Day for the entire year. When I began that process, I had not yet developed a disciplined writing practice. Nor had I thought of myself as a poet. The daily haiku writing became a powerful learning experience. Writing in community with others, I found inspiration and energy. Knowing I had a supportive audience, I became braver with the topics I ventured into writing about and more daring in my images. By the end of the year, I’d developed a true writing practice.
The Haiku a Day challenge ended officially on December 31, 2014. I am very proud that many of my poems are included in Everyday Haiku, a compilation of the best of the haiku challenge, published by Wandering Muse Press.
It’s been nearly seven years since this practice began. I am still writing one every day. Now I share them daily to my Facebook page.
It’s a ritual.
A devotion.
A prayer.
And now, a book. Holding Up the Moon: A Memoir in Haiku has been published by Mandorla Books and is now available to order on Amazon.
i’m here says the moon
with her gentle light that can
un-curse the darkness
a star is missing
from that part of the sky where
her dreams used to live
she becomes the void
in space which gives shape to the
matter of his life
she tries to retrieve
that which she cut away while
carving out her life
the clamor of her
monkey mind is drowning out
her heart’s desire
he opened the door
to her fortified heart and
set of an alarm