Okay, confession time: sharing my poems online during the month of April scared me. REALLY scared me.
Here’s the thing: writing haiku is something I’m new at. I’m still learning. And sharing work that is new and different from what you usually do means opening yourself up to the opinion of other people, to correction, and even to criticism. These are scary things!
But there is a law about scary things, you know. From what I can tell, it goes like this: being brave and working through scary things always works out for the best. Always. I’m invariably glad when I push myself to try something that, at first, feels scary. For one thing, I learn a lot. I also tend to make connections that are meaningful. During my National Poetry Month haiku extravaganza, for example, I met some amazing haiku poets (like Liz Garton Scanlon and JoAnn Early Macken) and found a great poetry community. I’ve learned a lot from these talented people already! Other connections happened, too. One of my favorites is described in this blog post from Melissa Guerrette, a fourth grade teacher in Maine.
So, friends, go forth and be brave. You can do it!