What is a Joy-Ku?
My take on haiku
About parenting, finding
Joy and staying sane
Yes, I made this up.
Okay, perhaps it’s a bit tacky.
But no, I’m not going to change this.
These verses are my take on contemporary life in the honorable haiku style, about parenting, finding joy and staying sane.
So I decided to call them joy-ku’s. Small, easy to see, and easy to tuck away inside your mind if you wish to ‘save them for later’.
Who has a mind they want to stuff more into? Who isn’t guarding themselves against a deluge of messages and big ideas and all the world’s problems to take on?
So I want to work in my own little way. Creating stories that can fly as light and deftly as delicate paper planes, small enough so that I may send them off, steering them to the tiniest nooks and crevices in the reader’s mind. Spaces that are too small to be bothered with, spaces the reader hasn’t yet thought to close off with self-doubt, cynicism, despair or worry. The spaces so small they get looked over – that’s where my joy-ku planes shall land, unfolding themselves ever so gently. Their message will be airy and light – no negative lizard brain will be woken up, no snare of stress will reverberate. No red alerts.
My take on haiku / About parenting, finding / Joy and staying sane
Because what power could three little lines of joy hold?
It’s just that, of course, they would arrive almost every day. Slowly, but surely, day after day, a small story of joy and light would land in the reader’s mind.
Would they create ripple effects large enough to give a person ideas? A sense of joy? A desire to go out and create joy, themselves?
If the only effect were to paint an extra true smile a day, that would be enough impact.
And so, I will give them ideas through my little joy-ku’s. I won’t ask for too much of your time or mindspace. Barely a minute a day.
But mainly, really, they are a way for me to reflect on my day. To see the large emotions in the smallest of moments, the way we see the entire world reflected in a single drop of fresh rain on a leaf. They will hold a scent of the transient beauty of this world, for myself, and hopefully, also for my children.
