Haiku 19

Some folks go to prom
Authors fill every dance card
with librarians

Haiku 18

Some things cross cultures:
love and food and empathy.
Also? Volleyball!

Hello, Dear Reader — Welcome to what we’ll call April Revisited, which is like Brideshead Revisited only with a much lower budget and Texan instead of British. Actually it’s nothing like that — I’m just trying to make myself feel better. Because, thanks to a technological snafu (that may have been in part due to, well, ME), half of my National Poetry Month haikus didn’t post!!! Aaaaaaak!! At least that’s how I feel.

So, I’m going to do my best to re-create the month (most of my originals are in my notebook or on my phone) but probably with far fewer photos. Which is ok. I didn’t promise photos. I promised the practice of haiku.

And, I apologize to the one-and-a-half of you who were wondering what happened to my haiku. My April was SO crazy with work and travel and life that I didn’t realize until NOW what had happened. Which is an indication that I need more slow down, more yoga and more haiku in my daily life.

Love to all! And here goes…

Today I made one of the many school visits I’m lucky enough to make each year. It was a funny and moving and surprising thing. It always is. Kids. They keep you guessing. And hopping. And writing.

Haiku 17

Some dreams do come true
like having an audience
in a library

I am nearing the end of my time with a houseful of teenagers but I gotta tell you —
I love nothing more than a houseful of teenagers.

Passionate, hilarious, surprising, honest, full of love.
I’ll take ’em every chance I can…

Haiku 16

They talk like they sing
No lyrics or liner notes
but with perfect pitch

We went to a backyard Seder on Friday night and tomorrow’s Easter. Plus, spring! Tis the ecumenical season of reflection and new starts.

Haiku 15

Like an egg, waiting
I am more than a tough shell
I’m tender and bright!

Haiku 14

Scissors like blue crabs
snip snip snip relentlessly
until my hair’s gone

I used to dread Texas summers but I’ve been here long enough now (nearly half my life?!?!) that I welcome them. The heat. The water. The freedom.

Haiku 13

From the ground: water!
Like magic, this bright surprise
makes everyone shriek

Tonight we begin our two-weeks of time with Joy, a Nigerian teenager visiting the University of Texas for a leadership conference. This is her first time to leave her home country, and we could not be more flattered or excited to be her hosts. Other than her supreme skepticism of our dog, we’ve gotten off to a truly sweet start.

Haiku 12

A friendship made fast
Harry Potter and hot tea
Why is peace so hard?

Haiku 11

Spring rain fills us up
(Didn’t know we were empty)
Let it last and last

Here’s a lovely and painful video on how society can act as the antithesis of creativity and what a bloody loss that is and how children — children — are hard-wired to use and fully appreciate the imagination. And how that imagination is, well, life blood.

Haiku 10

You ask, what’s the point?
Beating hearts and breathing trees
provide the answer