Learning to Write #13
What can you say, really, in a week as tragic, as heartbreaking, as desperately sad as this one. What can you do? Carry on, with all of the passion of our hearts bent towards justice, and freedom and on simply making things better. Every shuddering moment where we fall back, reclaiming tenfold by small steps of ordinary heroes. I’m not writing these haiku because I want to be clever or for a social media fix, but because I feel strongly about democracy and accountability and our social responsibility to take an interest and to vote.
Seven million people still unregistered to vote, ten percent of the population – not even of the eligible portion of the population. And yet we will hear about the rights and wrongs of the world from everyone who couldn’t do this small thing, and vote.
My election haiku journey continues 🙂 Why do politicians find it so hard to make promises and stick with them, changing their minds when an opinion poll wobbles by half a percent? Be bold, be brave, we’ll respect you for it in the morning. This haiku was prompted by care costs for the elderly and the sudden promise of caps.
Haiku is a funny discipline isn’t it? Fighting the temptation to put a filler word in, or a shorter word, so that the syllables work out OK. And you change the meaning so easily, through such small changes. Condensing an entire essay into maybe ten or twelve words. The cycle of seed to tree to pulp to manifesto, from leaf to leaflet, that’s a big thing. But 5/7/5 compresses that thought right down. I am finding it a hard discipline – a rewarding experience, but a hard discipline.
I took a one day break after Manchester, then wrote this on the bus home from work. Hence the poor handwriting. I thought it would be good to contrast the hand written haiku with the big headline and pictures that followed the bombing.
That one illustrates the problems I’m having with splitting ideas across multiple lines – I’m failing sometimes with this, I know. But finally in this group, back to one of my core themes. Engage. It matters. It is important. It does make a difference. Even when we are conditioned to avoid talking about politics, like death or religion or those other big things that you can’t avoid….
drb poems 