Haikus for Helping
I’ve been wanting to find a better way to feel connected with people across the quarantine ... and to do something useful. There's only one* obvious answer: To write haiku for my friends and family, and ask anyone who feels so inspired to make a donation.
Here are two ways to get your very own haiku:
Click on in to the Haiku Happy Hour this Thursday at 6 pm EST, and I’ll spin syllabic gold on my typewriter, live!
OR: Send me a word or topic to inspire your haiku (and your address if you'd like to receive it by mail )
I've set up a fundraiser whose proceeds will be split among several organizations from some of the communities hit hardest right now by illness and/or economic crisis, who were already working for a better, fairer world.
They include environmental and food justice groups, a no-interest-loan society, community organizers in NY and in our agricultural heart, Central California, and Black, Latino, and Indigenous activists. Please consider a donation of $10 or more in honor of your haiku! Benefitting organizations include:
Movement for Black Lives (Covid-19 relief fund)
Hebrew Free Loan Society
North Star Fund (Covid-19 relief fund)
Grassroots Global Justice
National Black Food & Justice Alliance
Latino Community Foundation (Love Not Fear Fund)
NDN Collective (Covid-19 relief fund)
The fundraiser page has links to each to learn more about them!
Need a gift for a friend or family member? Commission one to surprise them! And forward freely to all poetry-loving souls, or anyone looking for ideas of where to give and how to help right now.
*But why do haiku?
I didn't expect you to
write with ... all those rules!
So glad you asked: After participating as a hand-for-hire in a haiku duel at a pasta-company's ravioli launch party some years ago, I developed a taste for short, high-pressure writing experiences. After the battle was over, though I had been vanquished, I kept on haiku-ing at my typewriter for the guests. The thrill of handing someone a successful, spontaneous little poem was like working at a (very comfy) gold mine and getting to hand out nuggets at the mouth of the cave. I've repeated this experiential experiment during Open Studios at an artists residency, and it's too fun to stop. Come play with me!
UPDATE:
What fun! From requests submitted through Instagram, to writing “live” during a Zoom happy hour, to crafting little haiku index card artworks (a last-minute addition to my plans), everyone’s requests made for great writing exercise for me … and raised over $700 for Covid 19 relief. I’m grateful for it all.