Chef's Kiss to Poetry Pie Writing Challenge Poets!
No matter how you slice it, the second annual Poetry Pie Writing Challenge was delicious.
The challenge involves writing ten haiku for ten days. Each haiku represents one slice of life. When the challenge is over, writers put all of their haiku together and it creates a perfectly baked poetry pie.
I loved reading everyone’s haiku. This year, we had a 200% increase in participation. While I wish that meant we jumped from 200 to 600 writers, take two zeroes off each of those numbers and you’ll have the accurate data! However, for all I know, there are scores of writers who participated but never shared their creations publicly. I was only tracking what was shared on Instagram or sent to me via email.
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I'm struck by three things when I think about my experience during the challenge.
First, it’s more about connecting with fellow writers than composing perfect haiku.
I loved getting a tiny taste of lives from faraway places like Oregon, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Haiku written where I live in California—San Pedro, Palos Verdes, and San Louis Obispo—were just as delicious.
The surprise connections might have been even sweeter. On the last day of the challenge, I received ten haiku from a writer whom I’d never met and didn’t know was participating. Now, Kourtney and I are friends on Substack and I look forward to reading her upcoming poetry book about a woman lighthouse keeper from 1905. (Kortney’s Substack is One Deep Drawer).
As I read her haiku, I noticed sadness in some of them. Kourtney commented back that, “Many of the haiku are in her voice. She was a widow with three children, so that's the sadness you picked up on.” Due to this short and unexpected interaction, my creative juices are activated and I am thinking about narrative haiku. Isn’t that cool?
The surprise of connection and discovery is one of the great gifts of writing.
Second, I didn’t write about one of the BIG things that happened during the challenge.
One of my friends died very suddenly. It was such a shock that I believed the initial text was a scam. It wasn’t.
During the last ten days, it felt like too big a thing to squeeze into three little lines. Right now I need sprawling pages that can hold sentences and paragraphs without structure and shape. Instead, I turned to writing haiku about walking along the Palos Verdes cliffs, and a weed that dared to bloom on our roof! This wasn’t burying my head in the sand, but noticing moments that were grounding and calming. Writing haiku is perfect when I don’t have the bandwidth for much more. I get bite-sized creative energy that’s just enough to sustain me.
Third, writing haiku was the perfect way to mark a big day in my family’s life.
Day 9 of the challenge happened to be the last day my husband went to work. After forty-two years at TRW/Northrup Grumman, he retired along with hundreds of others who coincidentally “retired” on the same day. Read between the lines on that one, friend! We will be fine, but it’s a big transition for someone who loved his career and planned to work for several more years. In this instance, counting syllables together added a bit of lighthearted laughter to a moment that was also tinged with sadness.
Notice Ron’s hands—-I caught him in the act of counting syllables on his fingers!
As I come to a close, I want to thank the fearless poets who shared their tiny masterpieces—Sheri, Kathleen, Ceili, Patty, Kortney, and Lora—as the OG Poetry Piers! Someday, years from now, when the PPWriC is an administrative beast because everyone and their mama is writing haiku in April, we’ll look back and remember the good ole days when I could read every haiku written over the ten days of the challenge (and send ALL of you the cutest participation present).
To our poets, I hold your haiku close to my heart. Images you created still float in my memory:
Friday night candles
Shaking leaves
Baby bluebirds
Tempting tacos
Rotary sky birds
And the slow work of seasons
Thank you, dear Poetry Pie Writers! I savored all of your creations. As Kortney said in her email to me, “Your challenge was the perfect way to end the month with a writing win. Thanks for sharing this good work with the world.” I say that right back to you, OG PPWriC Poets, with a tiny twist—Thank you for sharing YOUR good words with the world!
I hope all of you reading this will join us for the third annual Poetry Pie Writing Challenge in 2025. Save a slice of your life for writing haiku on April 21--30. You can be someone who gets in early—before the haiku hoards come calling with all their sweet syllables screaming, “Read me. Read me!”
Look at Ron’s fingers. I caught him in the act of counting syllables!