Embark on a guided haiku

What should you shoot for when you write haiku? How can its strategies help your longer poetry or fiction? A presentation by Michael Dylan Welch will explore the world of 5-7-5 writing at the Willamette Writers Coast Chapter virtual meeting on Saturday, Jan. 20.

Learn why 5-7-5 is an urban myth for writing haiku in English, and why other techniques are more important for writing brief poems of personal experience. The presentation will dive into seasonal reference and two-part, juxtapositional structure and discuss how they can help improve your other writing.

Writing exercises and optional sharing and feedback will be part of the program.

Welch likes to be surprised by empathy and gratitude in haiku, has been active with haiku for more than 40 years and joined the Haiku society of America in 1987. He founded his press, Press Here, in 1989 and is currently co-editing First Frost. Michael co-founded the Haiku North America Conference in 1991 and the American Haiku Archives in 1996 and National Haiku Writing Month in 2010. He has won first place in the Henderson, Brady, Drevniok and Tokutomi haiku contests. His poems, essays and reviews have appeared in hundreds of publications, including three Norton Anthologies. 

The January 20 presentation begins at 2 pm via Zoom. For more information and registration link, go to willamettewriters.org.