Creative Practice: Write A Haiku A Day

Jan 5
3 min read

Updated: Jan 15

I'm a late bloomer when it comes to appreciating poetry... let alone writing it.

If it wasn't for a friend regularly passing along a poem every once in a while... I would never be the admirer I am today. And... Y'all... it has become a reliable support for my creative process. Let's talk about it.

First, here's the creative practice I've been using:

At the end-ish of every day, sit down and write a haiku that captures your day.
That's it.
- Reminder: a haiku is a poem where the first line has five syllables, the second has seven, and the third and final line has five.
- Easy.

This practice was a random idea when I felt like my weeks started blending into monotonous, repeated days. Since then, I've done this practice a few times over the years. I've chosen to write a Haiku a day for a week or 30ish days when one of two things is happening in my life.

1) Things are moving FAST! Things are changing quickly, and I want to capture what is happening to help me enjoy, process, feel, and notice when it feels like things are a million miles a minute. This helps capture moments that could have easily fallen through the cracks.

2) When things are feeling monotonous, boring, super de duper the samesies every day. Pausing to write a haiku helps me notice what was special to that day. Sometimes knowing that I would be writing a Haiku at the end of the day and feeling like I hadn't done anything would inspire an emboldened act or adventure. And other days it just needed to be the same old and simple, nevertheless, still capturing what a day can hold.

Since the beginning of October, I returned to this practice, and here are a few notices and learnings:

It's approachable. I can do it ANYWHERE! While driving home, a quick pause at a friend's house, right before bed... Just a few lines and syllable counting, and I have my poem! I pause to think of the day, what captures it, and jot it down.
It doesn't have to be good. It's not about the outcome. It's about a brief pause to notice. You never have to share it with anyone! Say what you want to say! Capture what's important to you.
You may surprise yourself. Warning... you might even be a good poet!
Poetry can hold it. This is a practice that takes time to honor what you're experiencing and going through. It captures those magical days of joy and ease while also narrating the days that aren't the best. Let the haiku hold it. Put it all in the Haiku.
It's easier than journaling! Less time, less detail, can be super literal or very vague, whatever you want!
Captures history being made. When we have big events in the news, our communities, and in our world, it is important to not only document these moments but capture what they look and feel like on our level, our individual level as people witnessing and living it. Write it down!
If you want, you can invest and make it something extra, pull in all your favorite vocab words, make it romantic, mysterious, a double entendre, or throw in some puns! Just go for it!
Reading the haikus after some time has passed is fun! Reminice. Take a moment. I love having a place that uniquely captures my day-to-day life. And again, way easier than journaling to look back on and read through quickly.