Week 2

Tiny Haiku Poems. Don’t Panic, It’s Only Three Lines.

Welcome back. If you’re here from last week, one of two things happened. You wrote something last lesson, or you read my post, thought “huh… I could do that,” and then got distracted. Both count. You’re still in. No one is taking attendance.

Last week, we stole a moment and wrote it down. This week, we’re going to take a moment and give it some rules.

Yes, I heard that.

“Wait… last week didn’t you say poetry doesn’t have rules?”

I did.

Poetry doesn’t. But some styles absolutely do, and today we’re borrowing one. Temporarily. No long term commitment required.

We’re talking about the haiku. Tiny, three line poems. No rhyme. A very particular syllable count. Just enough structure to keep your brain from running off into the woods.

Haiku are one of the most recognizable forms of poetry, and they get passed around everywhere. You’ve probably seen them as chain notes, little three line poems people share and tag because they’re quick, clever, and make you feel mildly accomplished in under a minute.

Traditionally, haiku are rooted in nature, focused on a single moment, something seasonal, something quietly observed. Which should sound familiar. Because last week, we stole a moment and wrote it down.

Congratulations, you were already halfway to a haiku.

These days, we’re a bit more relaxed about it. If it follows the 5–7–5 structure, most people will call it a haiku, whether you’re writing about cherry blossoms or the fact your coffee went cold while you ignored your responsibilities. Same idea. Just shorter with a name and an easy pattern.

So now we’ve got the container.

A small moment. Three lines. No rhyming. 5-7-5 syllable structure.

But having a shape doesn’t magically hand you the words. So instead of sitting there waiting for inspiration to get its act together, we’re going to gather a few words first.

✨ This Week’s Tool: The Word Bank

Before we even touch the poem, we’re going to build the thing that makes the poem easier to write.

A word bank. A word bank is a small collection of words connected by your thoughts, your associations, your way of seeing something. You build it by following where your brain naturally goes.

This is not the same as a dictionary and it’s not a thesaurus. Those resources give you everyone’s words.

A word bank gives you your words.

Here’s how it works:

Take the word: red (Now don’t overthink it. Just notice what comes to mind.)

For me, red goes here:

fire
heat
cinnamon
spice
chillies
burn
passion

That’s a path.

Someone else might go a completely different direction:

cherry
sweet
sour
sticky
dessert
date

Same starting word. Very different path.

Now here’s the important part. If we each wrote a poem using our word bank, they would feel completely different. One might feel intense. Heated. Impassioned. The other might feel soft. Playful. Romantic. Both are about red.

That’s why this is such a powerful tool. You’re not trying to sound poetic. You’re following your own associations and letting them do the creative inspiration.

Once you start doing this, you can have word banks for all sorts of writing. Little collections of words tied to moments, colors, moods, places. You can keep them in a notebook, your phone, the back of a receipt you swear you’ll expense later. These become your personal stash. So when you sit down to write and your brain goes blank, you’re not starting from nothing. You’re starting from a trail you’ve already walked.

And today, we’re going to build a word bank from your moment. Then we’re going to turn it into a haiku. Nice. Contained. Manageable. No spiraling into self doubt required.

✨ The Haiku

Here’s what we’re doing this week, and yes, it’s actually this simple:

• Pick a moment - Use last week’s moment or grab a new one, your call

• describe the moment Write it out in 3 to 5 lines
  messy is expected, we’re not polishing yet

• create a word bank from the description, follow your brain, don’t argue with it

• Then shape the moment into a haiku 5-7-5 beats

That’s it

small enough to finish
structured enough to keep you from wandering off
and just enough chaos to make it yours

No spiraling. No overthinking. Just do the thing.

🦋 Example:

My moment from last week:
I didn’t take the call

Described:
my phone buzzed twice
and I knew it was you
I let it sit face down
like that proved something
even if it changed nothing

Word bank:

Phone: notification, connection, tether, habit, weight, device, witness

Twice: repetition, insistence, pattern, echo, persistence, emphasis

Knew: recognition, gut, awareness, familiarity, inevitability, dread

Face Down: turned away, avoidance, distance, rejection, control

Changed Nothing: no shift, no difference, no movement, nothing gave, nothing yielded, nothing broke, nothing came of it

Now we take those words and shape them into a haiku. 5-7-5

notifications
the device is persistent
face down, no one yields

no-ti-fi-ca-tions = 5
the de-vice is per-sis-tent = 7
face down, no, one yields = 5

Now before you start picking your work apart, don’t.

You didn’t summon this from some deep, mystical well of inspiration. You took a moment, pulled a few words out of it, and gave it a shape. That’s it. That’s the whole process. No one checked your credentials. No one asked if you were in the “April Poet’s Society”. You just did it.

So if yours feels simple, a little awkward, or not quite what you expected, its okay. You’re actually doing it. Keep it small. Keep it honest. And for the love of all things caffeinated, don’t try to impress anyone yet. We’re building the habit and the tools not the masterpiece.

If you want, drop your haiku in the comments so we can all admire your very real, possibly scrappy, poem. Or you can just quietly acknowledge that you wrote one while loudly proclaiming you can’t. Either way, I see you.

Or, you know, you could tell me what an inspiration I’ve been and casually mention you’ll be joining me for the Dragon’s and Butterflies Challenge that drops each Sunday in April over at Vision2Verse on substack. (I’m the co-host, and once again, still not the dragon…🦋)

✨This weeks take away:

you just wrote a haiku

no ceremony
no approval process
no dramatic identity shift into “poet” required

you took a moment
grabbed a handful of words
and made something out of it

that’s the whole game

So when you see those little chain haikus making the rounds on Substack, don’t scroll past like a responsible adult

join in
tag someone
start one
cause mild creative chaos

you’ve got the tool, now go use it ✨🦋

By: Heather Patton / Verdant Butterfly

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