by Writing Barn Intern Lolo Maze
Two Friends, Two Notebooks, 365 Moments
Among the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received stands a pristine copy of The Haiku Year (alt. Amazon purchase), the book form of a year-long haiku project written by Michael Stipe, Douglas Martin, Grant Lee Phillips, Tom Gilroy, Anna Grace, Rick Roth, and Jim McKay – seven friends who sought a creative way to stay in touch across distance and time. This gift came to me from a dear friend and colleague, and the meaning of the gift was instantly clear: it was a challenge, and it was a commitment.
Stepping Up to the Challenge
My little notebook took quite a beating over the year. I scribbled in it on sticky restaurant tables, in the back of cars hurtling over potholes, and everywhere in between.
To stay updated, my fellow poet and I texted each other our haiku. My being a student and his being a business owner meant neither of us could make time to type out every haiku, but we didn’t need to. Scribbling the heart of a moment out from wherever we were was what brought us together – we saw each other only a handful of days, yet we could let each other into the meandering of our days spent apart.
In the end, I compiled all of the haiku into a text document, each carefully labeled with the date. That was my year (525,600 minutes) in only 365 moments, 6,205 syllables. When I sent him the final compilation of my haiku year, I felt incredible pride. We did it. And it was AWESOME.
Those haiku taught me more about myself than I could’ve anticipated. I felt connected to strangers I’d never see again, the world around me, to myself. And, I used up two good pens.
Pen to Paper
You’ll want to pick out your preferred format for keeping your haiku.
By yourself:
- a physical notebook in a practical size to carry around
- a social media account on Twitter or Instagram just for posting your haiku (just be sure to @ us HERE on twitter or HERE on Instagram!).
Collaborating with friends:
- e-mail threads
- group chats
- snail-mail, if you’re very brave. You can compile all your haiku each month (or, with many stamps, every week) to send to one another.
Some Advice on Writing a Haiku Year
Nobody’s haiku year will look like anyone else’s, and your haiku year may not even look how you expect it to. You only really need one thing – every day, for just a minute, sit still and write your little poem.
Even still, setting up some guidelines for yourself can keep you on track. You might lay out some rules for your year-long schedule: Will you double-up days if you miss writing the day before? Will you write at the same time every day, or just when the whim strikes you?
You might also want to go into the project with standards for your haiku in mind. Like Stipe and company, you could opt to write the lines any length adding up to 17 syllables. Alternatively, you could take the path I took, strictly writing the 5-7-5 syllable pattern. Will you write about anything, or focus only on nature? (if so, we might have some tips)
Most of all, make the process one you will enjoy. Get yourself a pen you love. Share your work with people you love. Let the haiku do what they do best – ground you, center you, and bring peace to your daily life.
This piece is dedicated to Travis Ehrhardt. You’re an irreplaceable friend, and I will always think of you when I think of kindness, compassion, hard work, and strength. Thank you for being a piece of my journey to become a creator and an agent of positive change in the world.
About Lolo Maze:
Lolo Maze is a sophomore English and Feminist Studies major at Southwestern University. She enjoys writing for its duality; it requires the pure creativity she learned in her childhood of neon comics and sci-fi, as well as responsible revision which pushes authors to say exactly what they mean, a skill she nurtured as head editor for a school literary magazine. Her dream is to help others create works that demonstrate their greatest capabilities as writers and visionaries.
Lolo!
Loving this! Travis is my son. We have had a wonderful adventure with haiku. I would love to stay in touch with you and appreciate more of your poetry. Wahoo for you!