This blog introduces you to my special brand of BIKE. I show you how to find your Best self, access your Inner strength, tune in to your Killer instincts, and use your Expressive voice. It's inspiring, spiritual, quirky, and it's all in your head. It's about ATTITUDE, not exercise, though that might be a side benefit.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Haiku Day: Inspiration in a poem

Thanks to Twitter, Michelle Rafter, our blogathon cheerleader, says haiku has made a comeback. After all the hard work we've been doing for the WordCount Blogathon this month, she says it's time for a break. So today is Haiku Day!

If you haven't written one in a while, don't remember writing them from your elementary school days, or aren't even sure what they are, here's the quick refresher Michelle provided:

Haiku is a three-line poem encapsulating one thought in approximately 17 syllables broken down as follows: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. Her example:

First sip of coffee
Recharges my batteries
Now the words will come.


For more inspiration, visit The Haiku Foundation and read through the poems in its archives. If you're any good at this, you could win a $25 prize from DenverPost.com, which publishes the poems regularly.

Meanwhile, here's my take on the poetic form:

Water everywhere
Flooding my ugly backyard
Hoping grass turns green


Can I prompt you into trying your hand at the haiku game? If so, post yours below.

13 comments:

Babette said...

HA! Mine is about coffee too!

Kristie said...

Jackie, that's great! You should give us another one, using your low gas light picture from yesterday for the inspiration.

Unknown said...

No wait! Where's your haiku, Kristie? LOL. BTW, I had a very close relative who was a Mary Kay rep. She even had the pink caddy. I used to help her do her newsletters. That was years ago!

Jen said...

Great post Jackie! I love that you included so much background on the haiku form. Here's my try at a nature haiku:

The ocean waves break
Splashing against my hot legs
Sweet summer relief

Unknown said...

Nice! Jen, are you near an ocean? I'd love to be right now.

Anjuli said...

Your haiku was great- I could actually "see" what you were saying- and you put it in a way that made me smile.

Thanks also for the link to the Denver post!

Unknown said...

You're welcome, Anjuli. Thanks for visiting and for commenting so we can keep the dialogue going.

Su-sieee! Mac said...

Haikus are tough to write. Efficient thinking. Makes me see chiseling at the mind. Hmmm, that sounds like it could become a haiku. :-) I like the images of both your and Jen's. I'll be posting mine tomorrow.

Margarita Tartakovsky said...

Great haiku! Whenever it rains heavily here (I'm in Florida), we also hope our grass turns green - it's the consolation for the torrential downpours we get sometimes. :) Thanks for the heads-up about the prize.

I'm happy the theme was writing a haiku. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Alisa Bowman said...

I love yours.

I allow myself
This time to waste on Facebook
But now I will write

Unknown said...

Alisa,

Thanks. I'm writing now, too. An essay rewrite. Killer! Making me go way back to another time. Hard to remember certain things.

Mark and Patty of Crystal Pyramid Productions in San Diego said...

ha ha - knowing that our grass will not stay green without lots and lots of water (here in San Diego) we just bobcatted our front lawn today and it's now a plane of dirt awaiting a new design with drought-resistant plants in the hue of blue. (BTW, found you via LinkedIn.)
Patty K

Unknown said...

Blue front yard. I love it, Patty. Curous. What plants will you be adding? So glad you found me--and on LinkedIn of all places, and that you didn't have to travel far. LOL. Social media works. Would love to do a drought resistant yard some day. In an earlier post, I write about the one plant I can grow on my patio--the elephant plant. Thankfully, it's very drought resistant. So I filled my patio with them. I like the uniformity, but sometimes I wish they came in other colors.