Try This: Write A Haiku

If you’re short on time, write a haiku! These tiny poems are also brilliant to capture a moment, image or fragment when you’re struggling to put an experience into words. 

Writing haiku is also brilliant practice for: 

  • Mindfulness. It can help you notice nature and what’s around you. It also helps you capture the essence of a moment.  
  • Editing. It helps you cut out any extra words you don’t need to focus on the most powerful ones.  
  • Getting to the heart of what you want to say. If you’re struggling to write the next chapter of your novel or a short story or episode of your memoir, it can be helpful to sum up what you’re trying to say with a haiku. This will be a reminder when you go off on a tangent or get lost in description.  
  • Gratitude. Writing a haiku each day helps you remember the best parts of the day and can be a diary in itself.  

Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry. There are many rules, but to begin with concentrate on writing a short poem with three lines. Some people like to follow a count of syllables. If you’d like to try this, then the first line has 5 syllables, the second 7 syllables, and the third 5 syllables.  

For inspiration, look at the work of Hifsa Ashraf, who used haiku to write about domestic violence against women: Her Fading Henna Tattoo. 

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