April 2009

Happy National Poetry Month!

April is National Poetry Month, and that makes me happy. Reading and writing poetry is an important part of my writing practice. When I am deep in the fog of a heavy revision, as I am now, short poems with beautiful imagery lift me from the mist.

My husband and I have been living on the edge of Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis for the past few months, in an apartment on the 26th floor. As winter gives way to spring and the ice melts, there have been lots of misty days. When it is foggy, everything--even the church spire--disappears. And now, a poem about that:

The fog is intense
I can't see beyond the park
In its total whiteness
The world has gone dark

In celebration of NPM, Kelly Westhoff, a fellow writer and Twin Citian, invited me to be a guest haiku writer on her blog Haiku by Two. I wrote five poems about my dog, Nino, who turned five this year.
Read my haiku

I love writing haiku because they are quick and have a very simple structure, and I like quick and simple things. The only rule about haiku is that they have to be three lines long, with 5-7-5 syllables, respectively.

Write one, and see if you do not feel lifted from the mist.