Wednesday, May 9, 2012

This is my title, My story is hereby named: My epic haiku.

I have a problem
And I can only explain
In five, seven, five.

It started last year,
A competition entry,
To write a haiku.

I liked the feeling
The counting of syllables,
The three lined pattern.

And I couldn’t stop.
I entered sixty-seven.
My new obsession.

It must seem crazy
To all you regular folk
Who write so freely?

Imagine faces
Of those I know, those I don’t
Who try to converse.

I count on fingers,
The syllables on digits,
As I speak out loud.

Tip tap on paper
My spidery hands tap, tap,
Checking the numbers.

It just has to be
The perfect little haiku
Or I lose control.

Once I got it wrong
A mistake in a story
Five, seven and four!

The shame was awful
I remember my anger
In the sad mirror

There for all to see,
The girl who made the mistake,
Sent the flawed haiku.

So I’m careful now
With double and triple checks
For five, seven, five.

And one day I’ll win,
And people will understand,
A nice big first prize.

Until this happens,
I’ll keep counting syllables
On my busy hands.

I’ll ignore the stares,
The sniggers, the distraction.
They just don’t get it.

My doctor’s advice
Shall be heeded: therapy
I’ll get there one day.

By Laura Huntley,
Lover of flash fiction and
Partial to haiku.

4 comments:

  1. I too am partial to haiku. Mainly, cause it's the only form of poetry I'm slightly decent at!

    I *heart* your epic haiku.
    I really like the "for five, seven, five" line,
    and I like the imagery of "spidery hands" weaving both a poem and counting oh so carefully.

    Very fun! Great work!

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  2. p.s. I just used the nifty twitter linky lou thing for the first time for your post! *fist pumps*

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  3. oh it is so right!
    Did you see my poem from March?
    Not this March, last year

    I couldn't stop counting.
    Driving, on the steering wheel.
    Or, going upstairs.

    Count.Count. Countcountcount.
    Make the middle line longer.
    Five. Seven. Five.

    Here is the linky
    it wont scan, so it's as is...
    Poor link. More than five.....

    http://josordoni.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/poem-for-march.html

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  4. Thanks for all the comments. I LOVED writing it! I just had a read of your gorgeous poem, Lynne x

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