The Poetry Pie Writing Challenge is HERE!

Everything You Need for Weekend #1

Welcome! I’m glad you’re here.

Today is the day we write haiku! Let’s celebrate with pie! As we begin the third annual Poetry Pie Writing Challenge, it’s my hope that you approach the blank page like a kid on a playground. It’s not homework, but an opportunity to be playful in the moment, count syllables on your fingers, and write tiny poems that nourish your creative soul. Give yourself permission to write whatever you want because every day offers the gift of writing inspiration. All it takes is the habit of noticing.

Every Friday email includes the following:

1. Three tiny tips for writing haiku.

2. Three writing prompts which you can use or ignore. I always want you to have agency about choosing your writing topics. If a prompt inspires you, use it—even more than once during the weekend—but you can always go your own direction. As long as you write haiku, it’s peach pie perfect!

3. LINK to ALL PPWriC resources.

4. And finally, a pie recipe.

Post Your Haiku in my Substack chat on each day of the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) OR just click the LEAVE A COMMENT button below each day’s prompt and you can post your haiku there.

As long as you share your haiku, it doesn’t matter

• If you use or ignore the suggested writing prompts.

• If you use writing prompts out of order (i.e. #1 on Sunday instead of Friday).

• If you use the same writing prompt more than once.

• If you break formal haiku rules. There are NO haiku police lurking in this challenge and all tiny poems are celebrated because we’re part of a creative moment putting sweet words into the world.

If you need more directions about how to share your haiku, GO HERE or reply to this email (I’m manning the Haiku Hotline 24/7). I’m still learning how to navigate Substack and I hope the ins and outs of this platform aren’t too confusing.

Without further haiku ado…

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Tip #1

For the first day (or ALL of the days!), just try the most basic version of writing haiku: three lines, five syllables in the first, seven in the second, and five syllables in the third.

No capitalization or punctuation required. No rhymes. Your haiku isn’t a sentence, but a word image of a moment.

While Japanese haiku masters don’t use this structure (you’ll learn more about traditional haiku techniques in upcoming emails), this is how writing haiku has been taught in the United States. For good reason, it’s easier! The 5-7-5 frame is like a security blanket that gives us boundaries for our words and eliminates a lot of decision making. In my opinion, it makes it more likely that we’ll pick up our pens and write.

Remember, it’s the composing moment that holds delicious delight. Your haiku is whipped cream on the pie!

Writing Prompt #1

Go outside. Sit for a minute or two. Write a haiku about what you see or hear.

Here are three possible haiku frames to get you started. You can refer to these during the entire challenge. Also, you can switch the order of what’s in each line, too.

Option 1

First line: when

Second line: where

Third line: what

Option 2

First line: the space/nature

Second line: something in the space

Third line: give the main/important thing

(Source for frames is from Patricia Donegan’s book, Write Your Own Haiku.)

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Tip #2

Haiku include a descriptive image. This means writing about a real moment (not something from your imagination) that describes what you see, feel, hear, touch and/or smell.¹ For your haiku, focus on a single moment.

Writing Prompt #2

We’ve all heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” When writing haiku, a picture is worth at least seventeen syllables (5+7+5=17) because the image can help us fit our ideas into a tiny poem. Let photographs help you tell some of your haiku story.

Snap a photograph with your phone (or find one on your camera roll, framed in your home, or from a magazine or book). Write a haiku about the image. (You can include the image when you share in the chat, but that’s optional.)

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Tip #3

A way to create descriptive images is to show us what you see with the specific images that catch your attention. Often, this means focusing on a small detail within one moment.

Writer and teacher, Ralph Fletcher, illustrates this tip with an example about his grandmother. He could tell us that she loved to cook Italian food, but instead he writes this:

Over the years she’s cut so much garlic that the smell is soaked forever into her warped cutting board.

In this example, he’s highlighting a small, focused detail and showing us a vibrant image. ²

Writing Prompt #3

Take a walk. Write about what you see or hear.

In Japan, taking a walk outside and writing a haiku about what you see in nature is called a ginko.

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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 Black and Blue Berry Pie, from How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies (Sweet and Savory Secrets for Surviving the Writing Life) by Amy Wallen.

P.S.S. Fun Haiku Fact: The plural of haiku is haiku. You’re welcome.

1. If I recall correctly, some of our challenge participants might be writing haiku about literature and/or characters from books! Please pave your own haiku way and go for it! Be creative with the form and make it something new if that’s what works for you.

2. Avoid using similes (comparison using like or as) because you want the reader focused on what you’re actually seeing—not something else. In haiku, similes weaken the image, but I’ve been known to use them when the muse moves me. Again, the haiku police will not issue a warrant for your arrest if you use one.