Haiku/ lockdown

before breakfast
I walk for miles
hungry, sated

I’ve found writing haiku a really satisfying way of working over the last couple of weeks. The brevity and focus appeal to me at a time when I’m finding it hard to concentrate on bigger projects. I’m not dismissing the magnitude of the current situation, far from it, but it’s important for us to continue to create. Haiku are all about capturing the moment. It’s surprising the things that come to your attention when you force yourself to be still for a while. And the economy of language in these poems makes them seem quite experimental, which is something I’m always interested in.
I created a short film to go with one of the poems. I used our old Nikon camera – I don’t own a mobile phone or other gadgets and the tablet I borrowed was too cumbersome to slip into my pocket and take on a long walk (plus the screen glare made it hard to see). What I’m getting round to saying is that the film quality I ended up with isn’t great. I’m a complete beginner at this, very much feeling my way.
I managed to enhance the colour slightly, add a free soundtrack, then typed my haiku into the text box. That was pretty much it (except all this took me a few hours of faffing about). You can view the result here.
In the meantime, Happy Easter – and if you want to see some really good haiku video poems, have a look at Dave Bonta’s blog where there are some amazing examples.