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I love the accidental “Angels and Demons” vibe of the images I am using this month. I also love all the haiku I share with you today — the National Haiku Day. Unlike my friend Michele who writes haiku each day, I only do it once a month for the Worth It! newsletter, once a year for Japan’s Golden Week, and, of course, for this poet’s holiday we celebrate today.
Many years ago I started having a Haiku Contest each year for my grandchildren under the umbrella of Miss Ladybug. In recent years I began inviting parents and older grandchildren to join in. This year, I extended the invitation to Keith’s and my extended families. We already participate in a monthly family photo contest, so I thought I’d try an annual haiku contest and see if it had any traction. You never know with poetry — but haiku is a lot more approachable. I plan to do it again next year. This year’s contest ended Monday at midnight, which allowed me Tuesday to organize the entries and design a commemorative e-book. I wanted to be able to publish and send it to them today, which I did this morning. And now I am sharing part of it with you. I removed all the names of the poets because I only decided to share with you a few hours ago, and I don’t have time to reach out to everyone to ask if I can add attributions to their poems. I am also only giving you about 25% of the little book I made them. The portion here is the 2024 haiku from Monday night. The rest of the book is a collection of haiku from all previous years Maybe next year for that.
Toward the end of this love letter, I’m including a little bit about the fictional Miss Ladybug, and adding an instruction on the common rules for writing this poetry form. It really is fun and easy. While you enjoy the showers and the flowers today, I hope you make some haiku magic with your family. — Mary
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