With any creative project, especially one that relies on repetition to reach some unknown goal, the most important step is to look back afterward and see what has come of all those little pieces of effort. This has been a more valuable project than I ever would have guessed when I came up with it… lots of aspects turned out differently than I had projected. Overall, the year’s worth of mini-poems shocks me with its depth and significance.

What the Haiku Have Taught Me.

• Brevity.
  The compactness of a haiku is what lends it all of its depth. Condensing words, feelings, images into such a small space often grants it greater meaning than the same image would have had in another type of poem or expression. The skills developed here can be applied in all forms of writing.
• Universality.
  With seventeen syllables, it’s impossible to get too personal. Small references to memories I hold will spark entirely different thoughts in anyone else, leaving everyone with a unique and meaningful experience. The haiku lack the specifics that would make them resonate less with their readers; they serve as a jumping off point where everyone can leave with his or her own interpretation and thoughts.
• Post Value.
  Blogs are instantly more valued when there are posts occurring on a daily or at least regular basis. I had become infamous (at least with myself) for my brief, infrequent postings, and posting every day kept me on track. They were little: seventeen syllables + picture, but they had meaning and were usually something that most people could connect with on some level. My blog traffic increased 58% between December 2008 and December 2009!
• Journaling.
  Although many of the haiku were much more poetic than a simple summary of my day, they almost always had a direct connection to something that had happened to me. Looking back, I can remember very small experiences that I certainly would have forgotten without these reminders. From the beginning to the end of 2009, I can witness in myself a measurable growth: a year’s worth of maturity. And it’s really nice to be able to reflect on all the little things that would have been lost otherwise.
• Perception.
  The daily poems forced me to have a greater perception of the world. There were many days when I would be sitting at my computer at near midnight, struggling to remember anything significant from my day. Some of these sleepy haiku were of poor quality, but they have all taught me something: there is value and importance in every single day, and if we don’t look for it we’ve wasted that day.

As a final wrap-up, I want to say that I found this to be a very worthwhile project. It was challenging, because some days just don’t feel like creative days. This was a good daily practice because of its simplicity… even on lazy days I could get myself to spit out my three lines of poem. That’s the key: if you want to challenge yourself by doing something creative daily, by all means, go for it, but don’t make it something too complex or too limited. It has to be something that can grow on itself, not something that will shrink in possibility as time passes. But at the end, it’s amazing to see what can come out of those small time investments once they’ve been added up.

seventeen syllables: a reflection is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

perpetually fleeting is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

Still working away on this quilt that I started back in 2007… it’s almost 2010 now, and I’m still piecing together patches for the top. I ran out of half of the fabrics, so I’m having to substitute with similar fabrics, fabrics that I say have a similar “blur value”. It’s a good project for right now, since I’ve got all the materials here and plenty of free time to work on it.

I’m also almost done with haikus! Just a few more to go and I’ll have 365… can’t say it’s been as easy or as quick as I expected, because there were lots of days where I had no idea what to blog about. I am relieved to be close to the finish, but I probably will miss it soon.

quilting time is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

Living in two places makes crafting a challenge; all my zippers and bobbins and favorite fabrics are at school, while here I actually have space to make things. Now the challenge is to make something that doesn’t have a zipper…. never realized that I incorporate zippers into everything!

Or I could just order another huge lot of ‘em… zipper buying is always good for the soul.

making things is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

melody is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

currency is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

all day, every day is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

flow is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog