I Haiku While Running

This week, Littles learned about the haiku. We have daily poetry reading (because--did you know?--I am Mom), but finding a book about a cat named Won Ton that so happened to be written completely in haikus was just a lucky happenstance. We had fun reading the book about Won Ton, whose real name is Haiku, and talking about how we could write our own haikus.

Then, this morning while I was out for my run, I decided to rise to the (not very large) challenge. Running always encourages my creativity, and the haiku is short enough that I can remember the parts I want to keep and tweak the parts I don't. I would not, however, advise writing your own epic poem simply because then you'd have to stop running to write it down--which kills your run--and is challenging to do if you, like me, are running in the rain. Paper and pen plus lots of water and no sun up yet equal death.

Side note: another poetry form compatible with running: the limerick.

Working on something creative while running made my run go by faster, and then Littles and I had something fun to talk about while we were stuck in the hospital waiting room and he had "accidentally" forgotten his book bag full of school work. But these are little gems that occur when you ceaselessly plunder the hidden depths of your library and get your body and mind moving.

At any rate, here is Tiny holding Won Ton:

And here is my haiku:

Morning rain running
(Trigs doesn't like deep puddles)
Splish--in we go--splash!

Now go forth, get some exercise and create something fun! But if you write a limerick, don't start it with "there once was..." or I will make fun of you. And you will deserve it.

Also, can we please have a moment of applause for all the cute book models I keep finding around the house? Seriously now... Their dad provided some excellent genes.