Hello, Poetry Friend
One of my favorite books is Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, a middle grade memoir in verse. I’ve taught it in a workshop. I’ve taken a workshop where it was used as a text. I don’t know how many times I’ve read it. It is a book about becoming a writer. Scattered throughout the pages are ten haiku, and this is the final one, right before Jackie’s teacher, Ms. Vivo, says, “You’re a writer.”
I still get chills, reading those words — “Yer a wizard” kind of chills.
My memorization of Wendell Berry’s “Remembering that it happened once” took me into January, all the way to Epiphany, so I wanted to learn a short poem for January. Why not a haiku? Why not one of Woodson’s?
how to listen #10
Write down what I think
I know. The knowing will come.
Just keep listening . . .
– Jacqueline Woodson, from Brown Girl Dreaming
Since May 11, 2017, I have been writing a haiku a day in a special journal. Each day I write a new one and read all the ones that I have previously written on the same date. (This being a haiku practice, I assume I will have the time to continue this daily review into eternity.) Everything I want to remember about any given twenty-four hours is distilled into three lines.
In the “how to listen” haiku, Woodson’s younger self, Jackie, explores what it means to be a writer. To be a writer means to write — yes — but it also means to listen.
When I open my notebook and take up my pencil, I am doing exactly what Woodson describes: I write down “what I think / I know.” That’s the best I can do on any given day. “The knowing will come.” It will. I don’t know when it will, but it will. In the meantime, “Just keep listening.”
Sometimes I find myself rocking in my rocking chair, which is my writing chair, until the silence speaks. It usually whispers. I am often unsure whether I heard correctly. Because even after all these years, after all these words, it’s still hard to believe that I am a writer.
Here I am, holding out poems by others. Holding out my own poem. Hoping you — you who are a writer too — will write and listen.
Poetry Journal
Read the haiku about how to listen.
Take 5 minutes with the poem. Then journal about it.
No, this is not the beautiful Japanese nature-focused haiku in its purest form. It is the kind you probably learned to write in an American elementary school. This simple 5-7-5 form is your dog paddle. You can learn to swim later.
Write your own haiku about how to become a writer. If you like, email me what you write.
Happy poeming!
Megan
“It usually whispers.” ❤️ Love this daily haiku practice.
Oh, this is wonderful. I loved Brown Girl Dreaming, but it's been a hot minute since I read it. That haiku is golden, and I may just use this in my Creative Writing classroom next week. :)