Haiku 2023–365
I’ve come full circle
but billions of miles away
from where I started
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I did it… and I couldn’t have done it without @jbossyoung. Thanks so much to her for her love and support!!!
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Sitting in my comfy chair tomorrow morning, I will be in the same place relative to two celestial objects — the Earth and the Sun — as when I started my haiku journey. The Earth has revolved 365 times and I have met each rising sun with a poetic offering. Using only these two measures, it would be easy to say that I find myself right back where I started.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
According to Space.com, you (yes, you!) are on a planet that is moving around its star at 67,100 miles per hour (30 km/sec for you metric folks). In the time that it takes you to read this offering, you could have traveled from New York to London at that speed. If you think that’s fast, try and wrap your mind around this — our solar system is revolving around the Milky Way at 447,000 miles per hour (200 km/s). This puts us almost four billion miles away from where we were a year ago. This, of course, assumes that every atom that makes up who you currently are was present on the planet a year ago.
I would almost proffer I’ve traveled a similar distance mentally.
I reread Haiku 2023–001 this morning. It’s not that good, to be honest, but it was the first step towards better and better poetry. The entire journey opened my eyes, it opened my ears, it opened my heart. It bade me pay heed to the world around me. It forced me into situations where I had to expand myself. It brought me closer to some of my readers and some of my readers closer to me. It cracked open a rugged exterior and let some honest to goodness feelings come rolling out. It brought… at least I hope it brought… beauty into the universe.
It moved me billions of miles away from where I started.
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And with that, the challenge concludes. There will not be a Haiku 2024–001. Fret not, I will not be going away, but the restraints of the challenge will be. I hope to offer something creative in this space every day. The first offering is already queued up and ready to go.
