Scraps Of Mind

Haiku Your Journaling

The haiku might have been designed especially for scrapbooking.

With its seventeen syllable format (although the western versions do give a little bit of latitude), it’s perfect for creating a short piece of journaling that still manage to capture the essence of the story you’re trying to tell.

Long term readers of Scraps of Mind will probably remember that I’ve raved about this form of poetry on Scraps of Mind before. I even once ran a bit of a challenge to readers to create their own haikus and we got some fantastic results. I suspect many of you surprised yourself.

It looks difficult but when you actually do it, it’s surprisingly easy.

You just write down what you want to say in three lines. Then you think about the words and manipulate them so that they fit the haiku parameters. The traditional pattern is

5 syllables

7 syllables

5 syllables

But no one is going to condemn you if you vary it a little.

And when you have to try to fit what you want to say into that sort of pattern you will amaze yourself at how creative you will be with your words.

And suddenly you find you’ve expressed your message in a very special and concise way that looks really special as a piece of scrapbook journaling.

Have you tried it yourself?

I’d love to see some examples of your own haikus in the comments below.

Other Related Articles:

Haiku Kudos

Why Journaling is Important on Your Scrapbook Layouts