I swear I had tried my best to resist! After two consecutive months of AROS and NaHaiWriMo, i felt my energy level depleting and thought i needed a break from poetry. I badly needed a hair-cut , a facial and above all, i needed to put my feet up and have a foot massage. (Though i don't know why a foot massage! I guess all that walking on talus and standing in a queue had taken their toll!) So when i read about Aubrie Cox's "I doodle, you ku" at her blog Yay Words, I firmly told myself , "NO"! But then i thought there's no harm in taking a look...just one look and that would be it! But the sketches Aubrie had done turned out to be so captivating that i went to take a second look. After that i went for a third look to read the responses to her doodles by some of my friends and fellow poets who were participating. And so it went on... Until finally i decided, what the heck, i better join in the fun, because hasn't somebody said that the best way to overcome temptation is to give in to it?
So that's how i find myself doing this "I doodle you ku" challenge this month though with this small promise to myself, that if on some days i am not able to come up with something, i won't beat myself on the head about it. I've also tried to keep it impromptu as far as possible...just write whatever comes to mind then and there without much polishing or revision. Some days i write more than one, Aubrie has been kind enough to let us do that. But I decided not to post them on this blog right now, because without the doodles perhaps they won't make much sense. And especially with my decision to do the ku impromptu, many a times i find the words taking control of me instead of the other way round.The results are sometimes such that i don't understand it myself, why i wrote them and how they came to be there! So maybe i'd wait till the challenge is over, Aubrie Cox has done whatever she intends to do with them and then post some of them here.
Meanwhile, the doodles are awesome, the ku by many of the poets i know are amazing and i am having FUN! You can find out all about it here.
P.S. I still haven't been able to get that foot massage i had set my heart upon. The beautician is absconding!
5 comments:
I hear you, Sanjuktaa! I also participated in A River of Stones in January, and NaHaiWriMo in February, and was ready for a much needed break. But Aubrie's captivating pictures drew me in, I love reading the other haiku, and somehow, there is something refreshing about reading a manageable number of responses, rather than hundreds. I'm hooked!I've also challenged myself to try to write a response within 10 minutes (some days I fail) so I can justify to myself that I am not spending too much time on my "haiku habit". ;-)
I really like her ku challenge too. Her doodles are irresistible. Look forward to seeing you there. You'll be doing the fox/dream challenge too, right? ;)
Thank you, Cara and Yousei, for stopping by. I have been reading and enjoying both your responses there. The doodles are inspiring, of course, but what always amazes me is how everybody has a different take on the same theme!I've not yet decided about the fox challenge yet, Yousei, though i'd like to!
Sanjuktaa, maybe it's selfish of me, but I'm so glad you joined in! Your poems always make me go "ah!" when I read them. :) Of course, I'm also glad that you've been enjoying yourself as well and making sure that you have fun rather than forcing yourself to write on a daily regiment. Peter Newton probably said it best in one of the earlier prompts: "we’re among friends and it’s doodleku after all. time for fun."
Thanks for all your kind words here (I'm so flattered!), and all your generous poems so far!
No pressure with the foxes/dreams, of course. Come and go as you please, and plenty of time to decide. :)
And thanks to Cara and Yousei for your kind words and poems as well!
Hi Aubrie, great to hear from you and am delighted to know you enjoy my poems!I too am glad that i joined;your doodles turned out to be so irresistible. About the foxes,i've never thought of writing about them, though i've heard them plenty...let's see, who knows? As of now, i'm enjoying myself and thanks a lot for giving us this unique challenge to participate in.
Post a Comment