A year of haiku about my kids

March 14, 2019 11:43 AM

In the months before my son was born last year, I worried having two kids would reduce my time for creativity even more than one had. To combat what I felt was a loss of creativity, I decided to write a haiku every night. In my mind, it was Minimum Viable Creativity. Before we went from a family of three to a family of four, the haiku were about TV or food or the like, but when my son was born, he was the subject the first night, and the second, and before I knew it, the nightly haiku was now a nightly parenting haiku – or a haidad. It turns out the nightly parenting haiku is not only Minimum Viable Creativity, but also an opportunity to journal milestones every night without having to figure out what to say. Journaling is easier when it’s 17 syllables a day. By Aaron Cohen.
posted by growabrain (4 comments total)

These are terrific. They capture the mundane, the terrible, and the wonderful moments of parenthood so well.

Among my many favourites:

Postage stamps are not
The same as stickers is an
Expensive lesson.
posted by Kabanos at 11:53 AM on March 14, 2019

Journaling is indeed easier when it’s 17 syllables a day. Though in my case it was 31 syllables a day, because I roll better with tanka than haiku.

Good cycle of haidad. Thanks for the link!
posted by Quasirandom at 1:15 PM on March 14, 2019

She got a troll from
The cereal box and called
It ‘Remote Control.’

I'm enjoying these!
posted by jaruwaan at 5:38 PM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Love this! Also:
5/16
I read books with her
Every night, but I hide the
Really awful ones.

That was me. I'm not even sorry.
posted by tuesdayschild at 12:15 PM on March 15, 2019 [1 favorite]