Empirical, The Poet.

You might have visited my side project Mainichi Haiku.

It's a little something I work on with my creative partner. Normally, he writes the 3-line poems and I take at least one [cell phone] photo every day to accomplish it. I also edit his writing as needed but they are usually very good without being molested. Sometimes the haiku and photo are complementary, though they often aren't. And this is true whether or not we truly collaborated that day or not. We like to check in with each other but realistically, this doesn't happen every single day. Even the times I felt one or both of us "phoned it in" there have been some happy accidents. I still think we are our own worst critics meanwhile our audience may see something or connect with something we hadn't considered.

Well, I'm happy to report that we completed our first 100 posts this week with only one [month-long] break during which we actually got to see each other in person (we live in different cities) and touch base on this and other shared projects. The initial goal when we set this up was only to focus on a single goal for as long as possible—to develop a creative routine—so I'd consider this a success!

To switch things up and hone our collective skills, we traded places for awhile. I'm committed to writing haiku numbered 101-110 and he is trying his hand at the cellphone pics. We may continue with this arrangement for a bit longer but we are only on day 104 today so it's too soon to tell. I think it's been helpful in understanding what the other person has been on hook for every day. My first realization has been: writing a poem isn't tough but writing one that other people will see is.

Ultimately, I think everyone should do a creative thing every day. Especially something that is slightly outside your level of comfort. Or maybe you do that already? Sometimes I wonder if we should switch to a haiku and a drawing every day. That would be a huge challenge!

Tune in for Mainichi Haiku #101-110 and watch me squirm!