In yesterday’s video-blog, I shared with you how my collection of poetry is an attempt to capture the change of the season. Today, I’ve taken a few more steps towards actually publishing the collection!

I’ve come up with a name for the anthology which I really like : Seventeen. I called it this because a haiku has seventeen syllables in it (5-7-5). The image for the cover is a photograph I took for one of my haiku poems : it’s wheat “on the turn”. It captures the essence of the whole collection.

In terms of the structure of the book, I’ve decided to put each poem on a separate page with an accompanying photograph. For me, a haiku and a photograph are almost identical : each tries to capture the essence of something. So, a photograph is like a visual haiku 🙂 .

On the page facing the haiku, I’ll write a little bit about the story behind that particular haiku.

Because I’ve gained so much from creating this collection (and I’ve still got a few more to write before the collection is done) , I’m going to include a section on the therapeutic benefits of writing haiku poems. The haiku adventures are conditioning a profound sense of connection and presence in me; I feel like the world is slowing down.

I’m also going to include a section on how to write haiku poems. Whilst I’ll include some very basic structural guidelines, my purpose here is rather to show people how to get connected to the essence of the thing they’re trying to describe.

And after all that, I’m going to have a go at the adventure of self-publishing :). I’ll keep you posted.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT