I wrote Haiku for a year. Here’s how it went.

Last July, I set out to improve my poetry. I’ve dabbled in poetry, but have focused primarily on prose and journalistic pieces in my writing career. As with any skill, practice is key. So, I figured why not challenge myself to write poetry regularly. Knowing my personality, I also knew that having an audience, that is a body of people who would judge and possibly critique my poetry, would provide motivation to continue writing. I rarely post on social media, so I thought using my SnapChat (and sometimes Instagram) stories as a medium would serve as a good use of the platform(s).

The Haiku is a simple, short poetry form that is easily accessible to a novice poet like me, so it was an obvious choice. The Haiku is also easy to format on a portrait-oriented digital canvas—a natural bonus. So, without any context or explanation to the sudden stream of poetry broadcasting through my social media, I started posting. On “accident” (subliminal purpose), I began posting my poetry over sunsets. Sunsets are my favorite natural phenomena, their beauty and diversity inspiring many of my poems.

Below are a collection of my poems written throughout the past year. It is clear to me now that the Haiku tell a story—one of pain, one of purpose-finding, one of happiness, one of bliss. Read between the lines, and you may just find the story of a boy (man) as he navigates this wacky, beautiful life.