Every year, when National Poetry Month rolls around, I recommit myself to writing daily haiku for 30 days. The first 7 to 10 days are dreamy! I feel grounded, creative, connected to other writers and readers. I think, “Why don’t I write haiku every day all year long? I love this!”

10 days to two weeks in, I buckle. I feel a little stressed. Some of my haiku are genuinely terrible. I wonder why I’ve promised to do this??? But then I carb load, catch my stride and head, clear-eyed, toward the finish.

Well, we’re there, folks. April got shorted a day, so this is it, and I’ve got to admit… I’m already a little nostalgic for the ritual of it. I’m like a mother forgetting how hard it was giving birth because look at the baby!!! Anyway, y’all… thanks for reading and writing along, and for sharing your own love of poetry in all the ways.

Joy Harjo says, “When I began to listen to poetry, it’s when I began to listen to the stones, and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others. And I think, most importantly for all of us, then you begin to learn to listen to the soul, the soul of yourself in here, which is also the soul of everyone else.”

That’s pretty much the sum of it, I guess. Poetry is a way to listen to — a way to notice — what’s around us and who we are. It’s a way to understand we are one. It’s a deeply necessary light. Thank goodness for it.

Haiku 30, 2026

Day slips into dark.
We can leave it to the moon,
and rest till morning.