Sometimes I read a prompt and immediately have a haiku for it. Such was the case this morning, when I read the Wednesday prompt for Poetic Asides (write about “a creature that lives primarily in water”), and immediately penned:
frogs
on my mind…
it’s that kind of day
Nice, Cara!
Thanks,Sanjuktaa.
Thanks for making me smile this morning, Cara!
And thanks to the frogs for giving me the inspiration, Kirsten.
It’s amazing how just a word/prompt can spark off a haiku or a memory that has a haiku moment within it. I was reading a new novel last night and there was something about chestnuts and (as it’s a word I don’t come across very often in New Zealand) it immediately sparked a memory of when I was in Japan close to Christmas-time and chestnuts were roasted by street-side vendors. So I wrote a haiku, and unlike anything I’ve been writing lately as this isn’t in my daily experience – not the chestnuts, not the snow, but from more than 10 years ago. Very cool! And very satisfying too
I know just what you mean, Kirsten. When I was in my cancer survivor’s writing group and we were writing to prompts real-time, I was constantly amazed at the things that I pulled out of my memory– almost always things I never consciously think about anymore. The writings all came from a different part of my mind that I usually shut off. How cool that you were in Japan. When was that?
I worked in Japan for two three-month periods back when I was 21, so over ten years ago now. Didn’t know anything of haiku at the time! I wasn’t even writing then. But would love to go back someday.
I’d love to visit Japan too, someday. My husband used to travel there frequently for work, and I thought of tagging along sometime, but it never happened. For now, I guess, I will have to content myself with living vicariously through others’ Japan experiences.
Just finished reading about Maggie Chula’s years in Japan in “The Unswept Path”, plus I got to hear her read in person a few weeks ago at the Lan Su Chinese Gardens, here in town.