I’M RETIRING.
No, not as a marketer.
The humble haiku.
Before I set off on my travels last January I was trying to think of creative ways to write whilst I was away. I already had the format of my journal page. But wanted to spice things up a bit.
Date + Location
Highlights
Gratitude
Lesson Learnt
Thoughts + Feelings…
This is where the haiku came in. Tucked away in the bottom left-hand corner of each page I dedicated a space to pen a little haiku. Below I have included some of my favourites.
Now, I should probably explain the click-bait title at the beginning. I’ve done away with the humble haiku. It served me well, but I want to keep pushing myself. I don’t want to be constrained by this format. I hope to write many more haikus, but I want to also write different forms of poetry. I don’t really know how this will look, but I’m enjoying it so far.
I’m also no longer limiting myself to only writing when I’m travelling - as I did with these haikus - but rather just writing when the inspiration takes me. And being in Berlin, that has been in abundance thus far!
Before I had this publication, I did not feel creative in any way. I had my sewing, but dealing with my mother’s forty year old machine left this hobby dormant for many months at the beginning of the year, before I left Melbourne. I wrote in my journal religiously whilst travelling and once or twice a week when I wasn’t.
Writing haikus helped change this somewhat. As they were written in my phone and then transcribed into my journal, they could also be a piece of work/art in their own right. Detached from the day that they were written. I have chronicled 300 of them across 6 different trips. I hope to make these into books for my coffee table. Each one including the entire collection from the trip with a photo for each day.
You will notice that this is what I have done below. I have many ideas about what I want to do with the things that I write in my journal. Such as copying all of the lessons I wrote last year, running them through ChatGPT and seeing what the key themes were. Then trying to analyse these. It’s been over twelve months though and I am still yet to start this process…
However, by working on this piece, I am one step closer to actualising the dream of seeing these in a book. By publishing them, I am continuing in the practise of doing things that I find uncomfortable.
Poetry is incredibly subjective. I still struggle to wrap my head around what constitutes good poetry. Something that stirs up feelings or emotions, I guess. Which is something I did terribly at for the first ~60 or so haikus. I was simply following the 5-7-5 syllable structure and nothing else.
However, this is only one piece of the puzzle. Some other things to consider when writing haikus are:
Kigo - a seasonal reference - helping place the poem at a specific time in natures cycle.
Kireji - a cutting word - allowing two images or ideas to be juxtaposed through a tonal shift or punctuation.
Nature - focusing on what can be seen around us in daily life.
Minimalism - evoking a specific mood or observation whilst leaving as much as possible to interpretation.
I also learned that these guidelines weren’t awfully strict. The first one doesn’t really follow any of the rules because I didn’t know them. But as time went on I would occasionally break the syllable structure or omit specific points of focus so that it better told the story of my day. Which leaves these poems at an interesting crossroad. I have tried to make them work as individual, standalone pieces. However, they are all inextricably linked to the day that they were written. This is something that I hope to break away from with poetry that I write in the future.
On numerous occasions I have tried to immerse myself more within this artform. From renting poetry books from the local library, to attending poetry slam nights whilst living in London. Though I’ve not quite managed to make the habit stick in regular life. I think writing Haikus allowed me to reach a minimum viable product for poetry and was something I could stick with. Yes, I did miss many days and was often writing haikus in the future for several preceding days; but it was the low barrier to entry that has allowed me to stick with it for so long.
I may not talk about poetry in this weeks podcast episode, however, I will be talking about this point. If you want to make something a habit, what is the smallest amount of traction that you need for you to actually feel like you are making progress.
Once you figure this out, keep working and you never know where you’ll end up.
Latin American Haikus
A Haiku a Day
Through Central America
Penned by Paddy Hayes
Mexico City, Mexico: 27/1/23 - #001
Early nineteenth cent
Golden age of the arts
Abolished by war
Volcán de Fuego, Guatemala: 7/3/23 - #040
Up and up we go
The Volcan puts on a show
Showing off fuego
Hopkins, Belize: 12/4/23 - #073
A flash of yellow
A welcome to the jungle
A frightening growl
La Ceiba, Honduras: 17/4/23 - #078
The vibrant toucan
Through the ever present mist
Lighting up the skies
Copan Ruinas, Honduras: 23/4/23 - #083
Ruins through the trees
Parrots circling overheard
Pastel painted skies
Little Corn Island, Nicaragua: 24/5/23 - #114
Jolly we will be
When the cocos & mangoes fall
Carve them by the sea
Sierra Nevada, Colombia: 8/6/23 - #129
The power of rain
Enough to sink Poseidon
Echoes in the sky
Palomino, Colombia: 16/6/23 - #137
Sea breeze and sunrise
The placid water ripples
Rolling out to sea
Jardín, Colombia: 29/6/23 - #150
Seven waterfalls
Send torrents down the valley
Water the Jardín
Cocora Valley, Colombia: 10/7/23 - #161
Enchanted valley
Grand palms dancing overhead
Grey clouds filter through
Tatacoa Desert, Colombia: 19/7/23 - #170
Dozy desert town
Where dogs roam and kick up dust
Dashing for the shade
Airspace above the Pacific Ocean: 25/7/23 - #176
Crossing the date line
A day that doesn’t exist
Floating through the sky
Outback Haikus
Ikara, South Australia: 29/3/24 - #6 // 182
Fire ban lifted
The twigs and leaves crackling
Smoke plumes to the sky
Coober Pedy, South Australia: 1/4/24 - #9 // 185
Desolate wasteland
Where the locals roam the streets
Built on miners backs
Uluru, Northern Territory: 3/4/24 - #11 // 187
A field of lights
Underneath the Milky Way
Mimicking the sky
Camino Frances Haikus
Pamplona, Spain: 15/5/24 - #3 // 200
Misty mornings lift
Our veil for the summer
The trail springs to life
Burgos, Spain: 21/5/24 - #9 // 206
Bees search for pollen
While wind blows through the flowers
An orchestra of light
Santiago de Compostela, Spain: 31/5/24 - #19 // 216
Blue skies, wild flowers
Summer is on the doorstep
Wearing it’s best clothes
Moroccan Haikus
Marrakesh, Morocco: 3/6/24 - #3 // 219
The birds tweet above
While kittens litter the street
Fauna springs to life
Merzouga, Morocco: 5/6/24 - #5 // 221
Where grey meets orange
We never see the sun set
But always feel the heat
Sahara Desert, Morocco: 6/6/24 - #6 // 222
While the nomads sleep
Sunrise over the frontier
Sentinels at rest
Tangier, Morocco: 12/6/24 - #12 // 228
Scintillating sun
Sweat starting to slicken skin
Smoke splutters the sky
Tangier, Morocco: 13/6/24 - #13 // 229
A melted ice cream
Yellow and white stain the ground
Signalling the sun
Chefchaouen, Morocco: 14/6/24 - #14 // 230
The blue inland sea
Paints the buildings as the sky
Radiating heat
Camino Portugués Haikus
Vilanova de Arousa, Spain: 18/7/24 - #9 // 249
The coast and the bay
Provide solace from the sea
But plague us with mist
Muxía, Spain: 23/7/24 - #14 // 254
Sun falls in the sea
Holding its breath for eight hours
While the lights go out
Airspace over Central Europe: 28/7/24 - #19 // 259
Through clouds of thunder
Violent flashes break the grey
Worry in the sky
Balkan Haikus
Kotor, Montenegro: 9/8/24 - #13 // 271
Contained by mountains
An old Venetian fortress
Commanding the fjords
Žabljak, Montenegro: 12/8/24 - #16 // 274
Amongst the pine trees
Sits a blackened blue lagoon
Bathed in the shadows
Ulcinj, Montenegro: 15/8/24 - #19 // 277
Adriatic air
Getting crispy in the sun
Like sardines on sand
Vusanje, Montenegro: 21/8/24 - #25 // 283
Orange tips the trees
The leaves start looking fruity
Ready for the fall
Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia: 29/8/24 - #33 // 291
Ripples in the lake
Reflect the last of the light
Till the sun returns
Sofia, Bulgaria: 5/9/24 - #40 // 298
Sit on the plush lawn
In shade of the biggest oak
Grounding to the earth
Petrila, România: 7/9/24 - #42 // 300
Into the unknown
An overwhelming silence
Time to start again
Incredibly, it was exactly 300 days that I’ve spent travelling since I left London last year (excluding any time in the UK this year). I wrote the last one weeks before the day finally came, but I thought it was fitting. I am starting again, but this time with roots firmly planted. This is how I feel with everything in my life right now. I’ve started running again. I’ve started life in a new city again. I’m about to start working again. All of these things are possible because of the foundations that I have laid over the past 30 years.
Sure, poetry isn’t one of my core passions. But it’s fun… when I remember to do it.
Thank you for reading
Another of my Substacks
See you next Sunday!
So good to see you develop your own style over the literal and figurative journey - a keen observer of nature and a good eye for the moment both in photography and poetry. Your dedication is commendable mate.