So many years I’ve been doing this now, so many years of counting syllables in my mind, on my fingertips, so many years of waking and thinking of seventeen little syllables to tell a story. I’ve tried to describe a love, I’ve tried to speak of ache, of autism, of longing, sorrow, of death. I’ve used haiku to describe the changing of the seasons, the changing of my soul, the growth, the light I’ve been chasing, the dark I long for. Travel, stillness, joy, pain, seventeen syllables to speak about so many different things, and I am astounded that I’m still going, that I’ve never yet missed a day.
The answer to a question I get asked over and over is a simple one, and so I will answer it here in case you too have wondered: Yes, my fingers still count out the syllables, even though in truth my brain thinks in them now. After all this time, I think it has a knack of just knowing how many syllables each sentence I say has, but despite this, my fingers still dance. I catch myself from time to time doing this even when I’m not writing, catch myself tap dancing my phalanges on the surface of my leg, the top of a table, even the air outside a car window when others are speaking, measuring out the words others say and making them into haiku too. Part of this is my autism, as I’ve always done this with my hands, played invisible pianos to make sense of the world around me, to balance the motion in my mind with motion in my fingertips, and part of this is an inherent and unflinching belief that so often the things we all say are poetry, if only given the chance to be remembered. We are poetry, the lot of us, and dammit I want to show you that.
That’s what this is, that’s what this has always been, this obsession of posting a haiku a day for well over a decade now. Some future day in February of 2023, I will reach 5,000 days in a row of writing, posting, sharing a tiny little poem, seventeen syllables, and I hope on that day everyone realizes that this has always been about showing you all that life is poetry, if we only stop to look close enough. Life is poetry, love is poetry, death is poetry, hope, fear, hatred, sex, intimacy, it’s all poetry if only we give our attention, our care over to it long enough to immortalize it.
I urge you, all of you beautiful souls reading this, I urge you to find some tiny bit of art you can practice every day, and I urge you to practice it. If you cannot find one, start with haiku, it’s 17 syllables, and I think we can all spare that. Vonnegut once said, “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”
So, my friends. Do it. Here’s to seventeen syllables, here’s to your eyes reading them. Here’s to so many stories told in so few letters. Here’s to art. Here’s to life.
My fingers still dance
counting seven syllables
sandwiched between five.
Song of the Week
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I enjoyed the history and evolution of your creativity. You're officially in the top 5 of my most favorite poets of all time. Passing your art on to my son.
I never asked any questions and I never once were given any answers to this very day.
No one has ever told me a word or words of fact and they still haven't yet to this day
I never once talked or heard or found or been found by anyone I once knew still to this day
I never knew what happened and still don't know even to this very day i don't know
I don't understand any of your words or remember living a certain set of them
I have intuition I use as part of my alien ancestor emotional intelligence inherent
It's been 5 years struggled. 3 years married to someone I don't even know how or why I married him , I didn't then either. Not love.
I don't make mistakes or have regrets
I own myself each day as I always have
I'm loyal to my name and serve it still.
I don't understand poems or remember any
I can write but I don't sit still
I do not take naps or sit down to eat dinner
I don't take breaks or calm myself to easy
I'm not afraid to fly , I'm afraid to be a passenger and rider in a car
Bc of crashing wrecks and bridge sand bar
I don't drive hardly ever PTSD yes a lot.
I fly just best and very fine.
Never been to hot springs and I live on gals island already.
There's too much too write here and I'm always in a rush, the animals and the asshole
Test patients mentions tension daily hourly on
Do you want more?I have more words to set you in a tail spin, quickening your lips hide and seek. Follow the oil anointing drops scents.
I know what makes your inner world turn you wild like a crazed obsessed fan. Maybe you like to watch maybe you like to hurt me
Maybe you like it when I cry out for your touch
I know your taste and your sickest twists
I give you your fancies and make you prove it
You like it just like I like it , too much
Too fast too slow too soothing so addicting
You can't stop wanting a ride that moment you
call that place your home. It belongs to you
Fit for a king and so tight cozy custom formed
Beg me and maybe I'll sneak a nap only if your up for making me come sleep walking me more your main stay.
Shangri la , huge wax leaves as umbrellas
Dusk or Dawn , no panties on, I've made you wait start then stop and hidden find me again
I don't know what you have gotten used too
But there's nothing and no one as hard and all natural soft tissue skin as satan as mine.
Little devil , do you like masks sugar Queen
Nightmares dreams dancing disco lean
I have thoughts keep me awake at night
Waiting looking at my window light
Summons my ghost for some sexual healing
And to want me to come alive for you again and again. I never want to stop unless it's
Really real going to happen soon.
There's nothing I would not stake ever.
I dare you to surprise me and I promise I won't scream or kick or tell you no . stay longer stay forever, stay never the same way my beautiful babe and your face I could stay lost in your stare. A full time job and an honor. When will you see me and let me see you back? I always want you every day till death till life infinity magic figure 8. I was a penguin the first ice skating recital .... The dog was it's named Kelly? Irish pub? Or the one near the Hollywood stars on the ground next to the theater ? Horseshoe enhance?