Happy Haiku Birthday, Bambina

Posted by: m on: May 28, 2015

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It’s time for my annual Haiku for Bambina on her birthday. I like haiku because it forces you to distill what you are trying to say into 5-7-5 syllables. If you can’t say it that way, you can’t say it. You can’t blather on about prestidigitation or antidisestablishmentarianism or General Shalikasvili or even, say, more than two Kardashians at a time. You’ve got to think, measure, reflect then write. You’ve got to cook off all the excess and arrive at the 5-7-5 best syllables you can create.

Parsimonious
Is how to create haiku.
Less is always more.

My super awesome writer friend Betsy gets the credit for revealing the joys of haiku:

Why oh why oh why
Did I check my work email
So late in the night

Whatever was going on in her day or her life, she put it in haiku form and it was touching, hilarious and exceedingly cool. Try it. I guarantee you will feel better, happier, calmer, more determined. It doesn’t always work out, but it’ll be worth the try. Try it about any topic:

I’m reading this blog
Thinking, “what a pile of shit.”
Don’t quit your day job.

or

Beer and onion rings
Smell delicious at a meal.
Less so the next day. 😉

Here’s this year’s haiku for my girl.

Eleven years old.
4,017 days
Of you in the world.

How many weeks now,
Five hundred seventy two,
Of beautiful you.

Loyal, literal
Artistic and musical
Sensitive seeker.

Painter and writer.
Bows and arrows and horses,
Your favorite things.

Petite in stature.
They underestimate you
At their own peril.

You have already
Carried a load most could not.
My sweet, mighty girl.

May your birth mother
See you in her dreams tonight
And know you are loved.