A Year of Photo & Haiku (February 2023)
On New Year’s eve, 2022, I read about a pretty cool project idea – a year of haiku. The idea was simple – one haiku a day for a year; the author of the article made a pretty compelling case for the creative benefits of such a practice.
Below are my haiku and photos from February 2023. Click here to see the main project page.
February 2023 – Looking Back.
I started the month trying to stick with a theme – seeing Arkansas. Adding the theme ended up limiting the creativity and fun that the project provided throughout January, so I dropped it.
If there is a theme, it will reveal itself in hindsight.
I can say that something did emerge from the photographs the last few days of February – the idea of finding glimpses of color and joy poking out from darkness and decay.
Several of this month’s pictures are among my favorites: February 2, 6, 11, 14, 20, 22, 23, and 27. Each of those pictures shares something specific in common. I was feeling playful when I captured the scenes, and tried to pull that playfulness into the scene through lighting or composition.
Fully half of the images are taken on my morning walk. Even though I take one of the dogs with me every time, the photo on February 22nd is the first I remember taking of our chocolate lab for a long time. I truly believe this dog stops to sniff the flowers, he seems to truly relish burying his nose in any flower he can find.
The haiku are proving difficult, but are getting easier. It seems a bit too “on the nose” – perhaps even a bit of a copout – to write a haiku that directly relates to the photo, but I do it all the time.
So to play around a little, starting on February 14th, I started playing around with some visual distractions in my meditation, trying to replicate them in the photographs or, in a couple instances, through the haiku. That lasted a while, but takes the fun out of the meditation, so after a couple weeks, I started sensing the arrival of spring and the possibilities of hope.
Turning the page and starting March now.
You can follow the project in several places.
First, you can follow the daily photograph and year of haiku project on my “Arkansas Today” Instagram and “Arkansas Today” Facebook pages.
Second, you can add your email address below, and I’ll let you know when I update the galleries (probably about once a week or so).
I’d love your feedback and participation along the way. Please feel free to tell me how the photographs impact you, and feel free to add verses to the haiku wherever they appear – below in the comments, or on social media.
Click on the first photo to see the complete photos in gallery format.
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