Therapeutic Haiku

    Several years ago a friend of mine wrote a play about several alien races coming together to try to develop a peace treaty. He cast me as the representative of a race cat people. They worshiped Dr. Suess, and felt that by always speaking in rhyme, it forced them to put more thought into what they were saying, helping to avoid rash, poorly thought out emotional responses. It was a fun role, and the play itself, obviously a comedy, was a hit, including the scene that would never end because the audience wouldn't stop laughing.

    Out of the blue, I recently had the urge to write some haiku. I've always enjoyed the form and potential of haiku, and had never found the time to play with it. Even with this recent interest, I have still only managed to write less than a half dozen. I am seeing a trend in my haiku efforts so far, in that they tend to be narratives. I plan to write some on more traditional topics such as nature, but my current trend got me thinking about my friends play.

    The amount of thought that would go into writing haiku on difficult or emotional topics could be therapeutic, even if no one else sees the end result. I have often gotten the advice to write when dealing with hard to deal with issues, which I find to be good advice, although sometimes hard to get motivated to do. Maybe adding the challenge of doing the writing as haiku would make it more inviting to do. At least while I'm in my current mood. :-)

Posted at 04:27PM Feb 16, 2007 by dragonfly in General  |  Comments[2]