Love in 17 Syllables

Do you haiku?

Two years ago, I wrote some “hospital window haiku” while sitting in the infusion chair at the cancer center. I was in the middle of treatment for triple negative breast cancer (all good now, and that’s another story). During that time, I kept a paper journal for jotting down random notes and an online Caring Bridge journal to keep friends and family posted on our cancer adventure. I shared the following haiku online, notable only because my chemo brain was still functioning.

A child’s round balloon
floating wishes—“Get Well Soon!”
Daddy’s love, let go.

Cumulus clouds build
snowlike mountains to the north.
My heart travels south.

Haiku are good for
cancer. I can still count to
five and to seven.

Infusion chatter.
Nurses’ laughter. Distant chimes
beep…beep…toodleloo!

Celebrate all six
acheiving halfway to twelve
chocolate power

     But the story doesn’t end there.

---

My friend Theresa asked Caring Bridge readers to celebrate the halfway mark by writing haiku for me. They did. Thirty-one in all. Here’s a sampling:

Afraid of what’s next
Caterpillar sleeps now
Emerges flight            ~ALMT

Cancer’s not my friend
She is poem, ocean, bloom
Beautiful spirit           ~KF

So over rated
Strapped up, bouncy, cold alerts
Ta ta you ta tas           ~DM

Office mates turned friends
Copious amounts of pie
So thankful for you     ~MA

Who needs hair, not her
She has love, deep musings, grounded
Andi’s light, shine on   ~TC

Beauty created
From the shards life gives us
Writing haiku              ~JR

That’s my job, she said
As she moved into our lives
Bestowing beauty.     ~VH

Southwest starry nights
Bring peace with each balmy breeze…
Your cheeks feel their touch.  ~CB

I am babbling brook
You are still waters run deep
We share love always   ~LP

Focus on the CAN
CAN conquer; CAN overcome
CAN leave CER behind  ~AT

---

Sometime during my twelve weeks of treatment, a neighbor of ours had a stroke and was hospitalized (for six months, as it turned out). His wife reported that he was in good spirits and asking for whiskey ice chips—four syllables. And the next week, another friend lost his elderly mother to illness. While managing his own grief, he was also caring for his bereaved father. He left a voicemail message of encouragement for me that was a bucketful of love in five syllables: Onward and upward.

So you see, you can make someone’s day in four or five or seventeen syllables. And the words don’t have to rhyme!

In Our Own Ink celebrates the many ways we use language to connect, to forge relationships, and to create intimacy through both our craft as writers and our skill as readers.

In that spirit, I encourage you to share yourself with someone in your life by writing a haiku, or haiku-like poem—just a short note in poetic form. Each haiku is a gift. Poetry sustains us through odd times, tough times, heat waves, and floods.  

Here's to haiku, chocolate, and whiskey ice chips for all our uphill climbs. (But if it’s hotter outside than your normal body temperature, don’t climb outdoors!)

Do you haiku? Please share!