Just A Few Words

It doesn’t take many words to convey a huge amount of meaning.

After all, as Polonius wisely says in Hamlet, “Brevity is the soul of wit”, a line vaguely remembered from my A levels too many years ago.

Short sentences stick in your brain.

“Jesus wept.” Is the shortest verse in the Bible, it’s often quoted, although maybe not in the way it was intended, but it distils the essence of grief and humanity, loss, longing and love.

Alliterative words are good at stitching thoughts together into a neat package with no raw edges, they trip off the tongue.

Playing with words and meanings is a joy, from bending them into rhyme when you have the time to making jokes to stop the mopes (assonance – getting the rhyme wrong!)

Several days ago – not quite a 100 – I joined a Facebook group called The Daily Haiku.

There is a daily and weekly theme for inspiration. It is a pleasure to be part of a huge group of creative people. Haiku are fun to write and traditionally only seventeen syllables - requiring lots of counting on fingers, and I know that’s not just me because we discussed it in my writing group zoom chat! Although the purists out there may be horrified by that admission.

For someone who loves instant art in any form it really appeals. Although it can take time to cajole the words into just the right shape, changing and twisting them to communicate the essence of what you truly want to say. I admit I’ve rejected some efforts, when I couldn’t wrestle the gist out of them it made me submit to defeat rather than submit them online.

(ASIDE as my thoughts veer off at a tangent - Words that have more than one meaning – submission - a possible theme for another day, I will add that to the daily vote!)

To celebrate one hundred days of The Daily Haiku some of us recorded ourselves reading our poems. It has been edited together into a fabulous YouTube video – it’s well worth spending 20 minutes of your time watching.

 

A haiku jigsaw

Beautifully put together

Words painting pictures

 

Calming. Surprising!

The lilt of many voices

Warms a weary soul

 

Words can resonate and have the power to heal, often we wonder what to say to people especially when tragedy strikes, in times of grief or when people are struggling.

Lockdown has been a struggle for many of us, it comes and goes but hopefully we are able to find some words of comfort. They don’t have to be wrapped in a haiku but neither do they have to be long winded or clever. They can be borrowed – think of all the memes on social media and how they can be so apt in certain situations.

I’m aware I’ve probably written too many words here – long winded maybe clever maybe not.

I should go back to the quote at the start and put an end to this soliloquy, it’s hardly “to be or not to be…”

But hopefully my words have served some purpose, my last blog had some rave reviews (Hahahaha) – do check out the video if you didn’t stop half way through to escape the monologue.

Perhaps even try to write a haiku just for fun or for a friend, and see where the words take you…

 

A new day dawns

Fresh with possibilities

Which path should I take?