Saturday, February 11, 2017

NaHaiWriMo

I'm doing NaHaiWriMo again this year and Michael Dylan Welch has come up with an unusual set of prompts. I've made things more difficult for myself by deciding to experiment with writing what I'm calling haiku from a place of social engagement. I've been reading about the history of haiku and tanka and the phases these forms have gone through, including some where they have been overtly political or more generally reflecting contemporary social conditions. Shasei, the familiar 'nature sketch from life in the moment' is not the only possible way to write haiku although it has become the predominant style in English language haiku. There are two reasons why I decided to do this, one is that I feel I've got into a rut in my writing and I'd like to broaden the range and scope of it, the other is that the spirit of the times seems to be weighing rather more heavily recently than it has for some time and to ignore that entirely would feel like self-censorship.

I will post the set here at the end of the month.

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