The Poetry Pie Writing Challenge Continues!

Welcome to Weekend #2! Everything you need for Friday, April 11th.

LINK to ALL PPWriC resources.

Welcome to the second weekend of the Poetry Pie Writing Challenge!

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a burst of creative energy. I think that’s because I’m in a composing state of mind, walking around my life looking for anything that can be a poem. But most importantly, I’m inspired by YOU and the haiku gems you’re sharing with our sweet community on Substack.

Nineteen of us (that I know of—folks often send me their haiku at the end of the challenge so it’s a sweet surprise) from ten states (Tennessee, Georgia, California, Washington, Oregon, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, and Texas) are writing haiku. What a delight! Thank you so much.

Housekeeping

1. There are three ways to share your haiku with our community and I check all of these regularly. You can access through a desktop or your phone using the Substack App. This link includes detailed written and video instructions, but in a nutshell:

   1. Post in the chat. This is the preferred method, but you need to be subscribed¹ to my Substack and click on the menu bar at the top of my Lorrie Tom/Power Lines page to access it. (I’ll include a link in every email.²) It’s probably easiest to START A NEW THREAD each time, but you can also click on the REPLY arrow next to the graphic with a pie and the correct date. These posts are for subscribers only and you can include images and video.

   2. Leave a comment. Just click on any LEAVE A COMMENT button in this or any email. These are public and you can’t include a picture.

   3. Email me directly (lorrietom@lorriet.com). This is the most private option.

2. As long as you post three haiku by Thursday of the following week, you’re still in the running for those sweet snail mail challenge prizes. If you get “behind” please don’t worry. I’m attending a funeral today and on a plane tomorrow so this weekend might be a challenge for me, but that’s the great thing about haiku—we can write them anywhere in almost any situation.

3. Please give fellow poets love for their haiku by adding emojis in the chat or giving them sweet comments. That’s where the magic happens in this challenge.

4. Did I mention that you’re ALL awesome!

LINK to ALL PPWriC resources.

Without further haiku ado…

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Tip #4

Remember, the biggest tip is write whatever you want, following or not following the official rules of haiku. There are no Haiku Police watching over you here!

But here’s your official Friday tip:

Your haiku should communicate a feeling through the image you’re describing. Even though this isn’t easy, a trick for doing this is to NOT use a word that tells the feeling (i.e. lonely or angry), but SHOW what that looks like, sounds like, or feels like.

Sample Haiku

Communicating a Feeling

hearts hold heavy news

red bud leaves turning golden

Earl Grey comforts

(NOTE: This was written after I watched the news during the Pandemic.)

Writing Prompt #4

Send today’s haiku to someone you love via text, email, or snail mail (or at least post it on your fridge so you have a FEELING of accomplishment about creating something today that didn’t exist yesterday). OK, now I have all the feels.

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See ya over in the chat OR in the comments below this newsletter.

I can’t wait to read your haiku. My goal is to read all of your gems no later than 9 PM each day of the weekend.

Always writing haiku,

P.S. Did someone say PIE! Here’s your recipe for My Oh My Lemon Pie from Pie Camp by Kate McDermott. My lemon tree is bursting with fruit so that’s a sign to make pie with lemons! Next week’s recipe is from my friend, Sheri Allen, and there may or may not be Oreo cookies involved! If you have a great pie recipe and you’re willing to share, send it my way.

P.P.S. Tips and prompts for this Saturday and Sunday will arrive in separate emails at 5 AM each day. Happy haiku writing.

1. Subscribing is different than following me on Substack (because why not make this as confusing as possible). If the Subscribe button above this footnote doesn’t say SUBSCRIBED, you need to click on that to get to the chat. You can unsubscribe at any time.

2. When you click on the chat and if a QR code shows up and you don’t want to use that, just scroll down a bit and there’s an option that says OR OPEN ON WEB. You can also click on that.