Below is a piece of free verse poetry—I’m switching up my poetic form today, in hopes of pulling myself from the creative rut I’ve been feeling lately with one-off haiku. I’m not as practiced at this form, so it admittedly feels a bit clumsy. Regardless, it felt good to dip my toe into something different, to let the words spill out of me and follow where the poem wanted me to take it, instead of forcing phrases into a structure. Besides, it’s mine, and that’s all I can ask for.
At the bottom of this post, I’ll link a selection of pieces that also fall out of the realm of one-off haiku, in case you’d like to dip into those.
I hope your night (or day) is treating you well, wherever this finds you.
intended entendre
it’s incredible, really
how quickly the dormant awakens
words on a page jostle my chest
a thread pulls from my stomach
up through my sockets
my eyes flickering like REM
searching every serif
scouring the kerning
reading between every line
wondering
am i there
tucked between the i’s and f’s
the n’s and l’s
if i douse it in lemon juice
if i sigh
and sigh
and sigh
my heaving hot on the page
would i find an intended entendre
or would i remember that the author
thinks not of the audience
that much as i might see myself
it’s never about me at all
further reading
free verse
haiku sets
These differ from one-offs in that I write them sequentially in a single sitting. They are meant to be read together, which means that individual haiku may not stand well on their own.
stories and anecdotes
essay-ish musings
