TAKING TIME TO WRITE

Day 13 Prompt – TAKING TIME TO WRITE

Most people who know me, know that I love writing and spending time with words. As I reach the halfway mark in this #NaHaiWriMo download of my creative process, I realize that I have failed to mention the most important part of my process, which is taking time to work with my words. Writing haiku, is more to me than a school project or homework in English class. Although it is work, it is work I enjoy. Despite a busy life, in which I write a lot for work and community projects with which I am involved, I can get lost in writing and lose track of time, because I enjoy it so much and I know it is one of my strengths.

I believe that a well written word can make someone’s day, change someone else’s mind and transform a community or the world. Keeping those stakes in mind, putting my best words forward, using whatever time is required to achieve excellence, is my goal. Whether I’m writing a commissioned piece, or about random ideas that have landed in my mind, I write until I get that feeling that I am finished. Sometimes, this takes more than one sitting, even with haiku, believe it or not.

For instance, I wrote a recent haiku about a Zoom meeting and a zipper that got stuck. I did not publish the first version I thought was finished. It left questions in my mind. I asked myself: “why is someone wearing something that has a zipper?” Aren’t most people, these days, wearing pajamas when working from home on Zoom? This led me to rewrite the middle line of the haiku to reference pajamas. And that led to the version I knew was finished.

There is always the temptation to just say “it’s done” before it’s done. But I’ve learned to hear that voice inside that tells me when I’m truly finished with a poem. It’s a kind of resonance or confirmation, as if someone is whispering in my ear “there is nothing more that needs to be changed”. This is the value of investing time in writing.