Haiku month ends

If you've been following me on Twitter, you know I've kept up with the haiku-writing this past month. It felt good to flex those poetry muscles, and I liked having something structured to give me a creative outlet during this month, with all the packing, putting things in storage, and showing the house. I was putting off writing up a blog post because it seemed like I should have some grand wisdom learned by the experience. I wouldn't say I have any, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worthwhile. Forcing myself to stay within the structure of a haiku--and most of the days following the prompt--is good experience for all sorts of writing.

One thing I notice, looking back, is that none of the haiku are speculative. No scifaiku or the like. Part of that was simply because of the prompts, but mostly it was that I wanted the haiku to come from things I was actually seeing and experiencing that same day. Some of the prompts had absolutely no way of touching on what was happening around me, so I ignored a few prompts and for others tried my best to draw on a memory of an actual event. But all, as far as I can recall at the moment, drew on actual experiences in some way.

This month is going to be, in some ways, even more chaotic than February was. I'm setting my creative goals quite low for the month. April, though, should be much less stressful. So maybe I'll find myself doing more poetry then, whether haiku or something else.