A Haiku a Day Keeps the Sad Thoughts Away

At the beginning of this year, I was inspired by a brilliant friend to try writing a Haiku every single day as a way to check in and be more mindful.

I haven’t done any creative writing since secondary school, but I’ve been looking for a new creative outlet this year, so I thought I'd give it a try.  Also, considering that I’m already in a committed relationship with my Notes app, I thought this would be a good way to get out all those deep, dark thoughts in a more measured way.

Traditionally, a Haiku is a short form of poem that originated in Japan. They’re normally in a 3-line, 5-7-5 syllable format, and whilst there can be other “rules”, I’ve only stuck to those first two for convenience.

Anyway, here are some of my favourite Haikus from the last few months:

27/01

today I feel you.

your absence aches in my heart.

ten years go so fast.

01/02

when I'm with you both

our laughter is Brìghde's fire

igniting my soul

14/02

as you rest soundly,

i see the years on your face,

we both snore the same.

20/02

i want to have hope

but i just can’t help to think:

the party’s over.

20/03

i sit here and think

it’s all gonna be alright,

the birds agree too

22/04

which path do i choose?

it’s all out in front of me

that fucking fig tree

The first confession I have to make is that I haven’t actually written a haiku every single day. 

I had all the best intentions when I started, but after a few months, I realised I was forcing creativity, and it became more of a chore than a fun outlet, so I swapped to writing whenever I found the inspiration.

Whilst I originally started to feel a sense of guilt for not sticking to writing one every single day, I started to realise that this shouldn’t be another metric to measure myself against or another thing to make myself feel not “productive” enough about. 

It should be something I’m doing for the sake of doing it.

As well, I started to compare my poems to others that I'd seen and would feel bad that mine weren’t “poem”-y enough or as well written as others, but this is something I'm trying to fight against. 

I'm proud of myself for doing it, it doesn’t have to be perfect - it has to be mine, and that’s enough.

I’m still writing Haikus every now and then, and it’s become something I do for fun whenever I feel creative. 

I’ve also found it’s a nice way to look back and see what I was thinking about on a particular day, like an insanely blunt 3-line journal.

Everyone, go write a Haiku.

It’s a good way to make you more conscious and deliberate with the words you use, and it’s helped me to zoom in on the little moments, instead of having a 0.5 existential crisis thinking about the bigger picture.