I have missed writing haiku.
Every Tuesday at my Montclair Writers Support Group, each person introduces themselves and talks about writing struggles and goals. I tweak my intro every week, but it always contains “award-winning writer,” “author,” “memoir,” blah blah blah. I always forget to say, “I write haiku.” Why?
I’m a writer, not a poet. Sure, I wrote in school when we had an assignment to write a sonnet, limerick, things like that. I’m sure haiku was a part of that. I took poetry classes in college to obtain my English Writing Minor. Those fun classes were just that, classes. I was not a poet. My friend and my sorority Big Sister, she was a self-proclaimed poet. She wrote poems; therefore, she was a poet.
Years after college, we met for an independent book forum. She found a book of haiku as told through friends sending postcards to each other. Totally intrigued me. She was into snail mail, too, so we bought the book for inspiration. To this day, we send occasional emails or mail random postcards with a haiku. Blog challenges like the weekly Haiku Horizons prompt keep me writing poems. It still feels like a hobby, not serious writing. Still, they are so much darn fun to play with.
I write poetry; therefore, I am a poet. Note to self: remember that.