Thanks so much to everyone who shared your words. I hope you enjoy this poem.

I don’t usually do haiku, but I felt this time it was called for. I’m not sure, really, how I choose a poem form, or how it chooses me, but it can take a poem into wonderful and different directions. 

In this haiku, you’ll note I did use the characteristically American version: 5-7-5 syllables in each line. But I hope I stayed true to some of the haiku’s original intents: brevity, immediacy, spontaneity, imagery, reference to one of the seasons, and sudden illumination. 

You’ll also notice a couple of things: First, obviously, not all of your words are here. I’ve decided to take each contribution of words at a time, giving each person’s three words its own stanza, and therefore poem. 

But you’ll also see that this haiku is numbered (not to mention the title is, too), which means you will see more in the weeks to come. When it’s all done, each person will have their own personal poem, and I hope, a larger poem that comes together in a longer haiku, or eight stanzas. 

You can read this poem in the “poe-tree” as well, accompanied by art by my son.

EIGHT HAIKU

1. 

gangster sweetgum trees!

a professional cries out;

knees scrape hot sidewalk