Last night after dinner, I sat outside in a lawn chair and wrote four haiku. All I did was sit in the chair and observe. Once you train your mind to block out unwanted thoughts (try Buddhist meditation) you can observe the world around you much more clearly. As I sat, a Blue Eyed Darner came along and investigated me. I wrote:

curious

blue eyed darner

in my face

Recently, we put up a jelly feeder to try to get some migrating birds to visit. I noticed it and wrote:

evening breeze

no birds

on the jelly feeder

Next I saw the shriveled moonflower. Moonflowers open after sunset and stay open most of the night. Sphinx moths and others feed on the nectar of these pure white beauties. I wrote:

moonflower

sphinx moth and blossoms

shrivel after dawn

We have several Crown of Thorns plants in pots on out patio. They bloom all summer long and they are still in full bloom. I wrote this about them:

pale yellow blossoms

on the crown of thorns

hands off

Inspiration and ideas can come from anywhere. Are these four haiku award winners? Probably not, but the are decent enough. And if you look closely at them, they could be changed or re-arranged to be even better. If you want to write haiku, learn to observe the world around you. There are ideas everywhere. Even if you’ve written about flowers before, there are thousands of things you can say about flowers, in a thousand different ways. Explore how many ways you can say that a flower is beautiful. I’m sure the Blue-Eyed Darner has investigated humans before, and yet he came to do it again.

This morning we went for a bike ride and just now while I am typing this post, a haiku came to me:

cracked asphalt

grand canyons to rivulets

of rainwater

This morning I watched a video by Clark Strand on haiku. (Yes there are haiku videos) One thing he said really stuck with me. He said, “Make your haiku bigger on the inside than on the outside” The haiku is roughly 17 syllables, which gets you about 8 to 12 words. Using the right words can convey mountains of meaning, however. The haiku that have deep meaning are the best ones.

Writing haiku can be a spiritual practice. The restriction on syllables forces you to find the best words to get your meaning across. And remember, it is YOUR meaning. The haiku you write are an extension of yourself, of your spiritual state. Make them count!