Monday, January 20, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 20 Bonus

Haiku #389 a

Hibiscus petals
Lazy sun delays day’s end
Island holiday

By Cheryl Crockett

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 20

Vidku #020 ~ Haiku #388

The party’s over
I take off my dancing shoes
Steamy window panes.

By Cheryl Crockett


Rewind to last year:

Haiku #20

Quick right hand grabs loot
The left remains unaware
A thief on duty.

by Cheryl Crockett

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 19

Vidku #019 ~ Haiku #387

Shopping for seeds on-line
Planning my spring garden
Wrapped in a blanket


By Cheryl Crockett

Rewind to last year:

Haiku #19

Soft shade serenade
Budding rose and dewey glade
New lovers picnic.

by Cheryl Crockett

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 18

Vidku #018 ~ Haiku #386

Sunny horizon
Chinese leftover breakfast
Crowing rooster coughs

By Cheryl Crockett



Rewind to last year:

Haiku #18

Obnoxious night owl
Hoots wisdom from high branches
While everyone sleeps.

by Cheryl Crockett

Friday, January 17, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 17

Vidku #017 ~ Haiku #385

Tropical plants thrive
Daily rain forest visit
Five minute shower

By Cheryl Crockett


Rewind to last year:

Haiku #17

Curious young frog
Practices lily-pad leaps
Races reflections.

by Cheryl Crockett

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 16

Vidku #016 ~ Haiku #384

Gazing up at clouds
Searching for inspiration
Sun rays light my room.

By Cheryl Crockett

Video will be posted here when completed.


Rewind to last year:
Haiku #16

Deceptive sunshine
Much illumination while
Secret things occur.

by Cheryl Crockett

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 15

Vidku #015 ~ Haiku #383

Big dipper above,
Dad calls “lights out” and locks up.
Teen picks up her phone.

By Cheryl Crockett


Video will be posted here when completed.


Rewind to last year:

Haiku #15

Poet aims pen
To capture words between the lines
Hunter and her prey.

by Cheryl Crockett

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 14

Vidku #014 ~ Haiku #382

Morning alarm beeps
But I need five more minutes
To finish my dream.

By Cheryl Crockett

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Rewind to last year

Haiku #14

Stars welcome nightfall.
Cloud clusters cast moon shadows.
Hidden eyes appear.

by Cheryl Crockett

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 13


Vidku #013 ~ Haiku #381

Finished my coffee
I can make my mug and spoon
Sound like a cowbell.

By Cheryl Crockett
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Rewind to last year:

Haiku #13

Now fully awake
Finding myself still drifting
I picked up the oar.

by Cheryl Crockett

Monday, January 13, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 12

Vidku #012 ~ Haiku #380

Watching panda cam.
Global baby monitor
Daily dose of cute!

By Cheryl Crockett

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Rewind to last year:

Haiku #12

I set myself free
After forgiving someone.
They just don’t know yet.

by Cheryl Crockett

Saturday, January 11, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 11

Vidku #011 ~ Haiku #379

Wind blowin’ for days
The cup hardly moved an inch.
I take out the trash.

By Cheryl Crockett

Rewind to last year:

Haiku #11

Just outside my door
Light breezes beckon me to
Embrace the new day.

by Cheryl Crockett

Friday, January 10, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 10

Vidku #010 ~ Haiku #378

Stopping for coffee
Culturally enlightened
Got my second wind.

By Cheryl Crockett
 
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Rewind to last year

Haiku #10

Year’s worst day so far;
There must be a better way.
Colonoscopy.

by Cheryl Crockett

Thursday, January 9, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 9

Vidku #009 ~ Haiku #377

Putting gifts away
I find the Snickerdoodles.
Piping hot cocoa.

By Cheryl Crockett
Rewind to last year:

Haiku #9

What a lovely hike!
Is that a bear behind you?
Don’t outrun me now.

by Cheryl Crockett

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 8

Vidku #-008 ~ Haiku #376

Four frigid degrees
My electric fireplace says
“What Polar Vortex?”

By Cheryl Crockett



Rewind to last year:

Haiku #8

Together so long,
If you leave and go away
What will I be then?

by Cheryl Crockett

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 7b

Vidku #7b ~ Haiku #375

Good morning to you
It is five degrees right now
All schools should be closed!

By Cheryl Crockett

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 7a

Vidku #007 a ~ Haiku #374

Six degrees outside
Never has a half dozen
Stood for so little!

By Cheryl Crockett




Rewind to last year:

Haiku #7 (for the Redskins and RGIII)

Laying weapons down
Wounded fighters limp away
Empty battlefield.

by Cheryl Crockett

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 6

Vidku #6 ~ Haiku #373

Eight degrees outside
My houseplant opens up
As if to say, “Thank you!”

By Cheryl Crockett

Rewind to last year:

Haiku #6

Grass roots gathering
Underground activity
Insects OCCUPY!

by Cheryl Crockett

Monday, January 6, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 5

Vidku #005 ~ Haiku #372

Assembly required
Friends help fix hospital bed
Old man sleeps safely.

By Cheryl Crockett

Rewind to last year:

Haiku #5

Light fades past the woods.
Another day is over;
Bright final rays dim.

By Cheryl Crockett
Rewinds were previously unpublished here.

#VidKu #Haiku

Saturday, January 4, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 4

Vidku #4 ~ Haiku #371

I ate too much pie.
So good, it made me forget
To save dad a slice.

By Cheryl Crockett
Note: There are extra words in the video that are not in the poem.
The guest voice is my dad.

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Rewind from last year:

Haiku #4

Northern school children
Pray for frosty blessings
And snowflakes start to fall.

By Cheryl Crockett

#haiku #VidKu #senryu

Thursday, January 2, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 3

Vidku #3 ~ Haiku #370

Instead of yearly
A monthly resolution
Easier to keep

By Cheryl Crockett


Rewind to last year

Haiku #3

Brittle branches breach
Winter horizon skies,
Tickling low-hanging clouds.

by Cheryl Crockett


#VidKu #Haiku

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 2

Vidku #002 ~ Haiku #369

Holiday remnants
The lights come down tomorrow.
Sunsets are later.

By Cheryl Crockett


Rewind to last year

Haiku #2

After thirteen years
Wishing she was still alive
I so miss our talks

by Cheryl Crockett

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

2014 ~ Cheryl's Everyday Haiku ~ January 1

Vidku #001 ~ Haiku #368

After sleeping late
A little sun on my face
Before it goes down.

By Cheryl Crockett


Rewind to last year's poem:


Haiku #1

January first
My easy resolution:
Take care of myself.

by Cheryl Crockett


A Full Year Of Cheryl's Everyday Haiku in 2013

PART 1

One year ago on January 1st 2013, I challenged myself to write daily haiku and post them on-line. I did my best to write at least one per day. The response has gone well beyond what I expected. Thank you all very much. I am writing this to share with you excerpts from my adventures.

On some days, my circumstances, or temporarily low levels of inspiration and creativity, kept me from writing on a given day, I would write more than one on the next day(s). Sometimes, I was so inspired, I would write more than one per day. 

My creative process was fueled by other poems I found on-line. I would leaf through haiku anthologies I collected. It was easy to find inspiration among those pages. I would flip a page or two, find a rare treasure and suddenly, I was ready to write.

Haiku is very much alive in numerous on-line forums. One of the first I found was Twitter. The hashtag #haiku is tweeted every minute of every hour of everyday. Dozens of people around the world read my haiku and clicked "favorite" and/or "retweet". 

When I had trouble starting a poem, I would search through other haiku tweets and deconstruct a poem I liked, then I would write a new one adding my own spin to the concept. I made a lot of new Twitter friends by doing this. Twitter has, by far, the most vibrant community of haiku writers. 

Sometimes other poets would reply to my haiku tweets with new poems of their own. If something was happening in current events, a few of us might start a chain of haiku. For instance, the "Product Poet" would post something about a popular sports figure who happened to be in the news. Another poet would see the haiku and use the last line to start another new haiku. A third poet, maybe me, would take the last line from the 2nd poem and write a third. This was lots of fun and would happen quickly. Poets could be from anywhere, and there was no limit to how many people could participate.

In April, after I began posting on Blogger and tweeting links to these posts containing my haiku, I began to see my name included in tweets for paper.li's. "Haiku Today" and "The Poetry and Me Daily Part 3" started picking up my poems and featuring them in these on-line niche papers that gave all included more exposure. At first, I would see one or two per month. By the end of 2013, it was happening almost daily.

I knew about the dynamic haiku community on Twitter before I started Cheryl's Everyday Haiku. On Facebook I discovered #NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month). During each day of February, the shortest month, participants write one haiku, the shortest poetic form, and post online. Since I had been writing one per day since the beginning of January, I decided I would write two haiku per day in order to participate in this project.

My activity on Facebook connected me with some very accomplished and opinionated haiku poets. I learned that there is a minimalist school of thought that suggests haiku is less than 17 syllables. Proponents of this approach are adamant that syllables are inaccurately correlated to their Japanese counterparts. And because this causes western, English, haiku to contain much more information, they insist that the 5-7-5, or 17 syllable guideline be abandoned.

I disagree with these people. I believe that 17 syllables is here to stay. It is the American, or western method of writing haiku that should continue to be practiced and celebrated, along with the shorter mini-micro approaches. During the last year, I attempted to write both ways. I don't believe anyone has to choose one way to write haiku. Neither should anyone argue with others to get them to write a certain way or stop writing the way they like to write.

This is poetry. Taking sides in this battle will not cure cancer or decrease the prison population. Choosing to write one way or the other, or both, will not crack the earth into halves. While I started the year staunchly adhering to 17 syllables and loosely grasping 5-7-5, I changed my mind and decided to embrace all approaches to writing haiku, as long as I didn't exceed 17 syllables.

Google+ has one of the warmest and most interactive haiku forums. I started posting there in April as well as on my blogger page. I continued until the end of the year posting on five social media pages: Twitter, Blogspot (Blogger), Facebook, WordPress and Google+. A handful of people joined my personal sites (WordPress & Blogger).while 70+ people liked my haiku page on Facebook. And I gained hundreds of  followers on Twitter and Google+.

So, what's next for me and my haiku? I followed in the footsteps of another poet I saw on Facebook and Twitter when I started. As I watched her begin her second year, when I began my first, she started adding images to her poems. I added photos periodically, so I really want to make my own original changes..

Video haiku might work. Tout and Vine are apps for creating short videos, I think most spoken haiku will fit into a 15 second Tout video, and shorter haiku will fit on a 6 second Vine. Of course, YouTube has poetry of all sizes. People will enjoy seeing the faces of fellow haiku poets in motion. Maybe the hashtag could be #VidKu. What if just one quarter of the poets who are posting haiku on-line started doing so on video? I think I want to find out!