The Alphabet Haiku Project - Part 1

As I was practicing several movements from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, I got to thinking how he wrote those pieces, not as an assignment from anyone, but just as a disciplined project of his own initiative and creation. The WTC includes a composition to illustrate each of the 24 major and minor keys, a system for tuning the octave which Bach was instrumental (pun intended) in developing. 

This musing prompted me to consider a small creative project I might do just for the discipline and joy of it. My daughter is training for her first half-marathon in May and I've enjoyed reading about what inspires her on her Facebook posts. Here on the front end of the year, it's a good time to consider such things. It seemed good to me too, as I move through the days following my mother's death, to have some positive, yet simple creative projects stirring as a way to honor her memory in these early days of grief.

At about the same time I'd entered a couple poems in a contest, including one in the form of a Haiku. While tidying up in the kitchen the thought came to me for my project:   to write a haiku with a one word title for each letter of the alphabet, on something I learned from or observed about my mom. There are varying "rules" for haiku poetry in English. I decided to go with a modest guideline of three lines with 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Here is part one of that project.

Alphabet Truck by Eric Tabuchi 

Affirmation

Everyone needs it--

Bloom it out with cheerful heart,

Generating hope.

Believe

Don’t straddle the fence

Weighing doubts in a kettle--

Follow the White Horse.

Courtesy

Bend your heart so low

That it touches the lonely

Beach in my spirit.

Dreaming

Clouds in my vision

Form the future in color,

Where life springs with hope.

Ecstasy

Heightened hour of joy

When my best shines bright in you

Scattering life’s gloom.

Fun

Today was all play

With a whistle and a wink

And no time to think.

Guardian

Unseen by my bed

Angels hover overhead

Bringing quiet rest.

Habits

Tidy little bits

That tick along like clockwork

Fueling ordered lives.

Interesting

No room for dry blokes!

Set the pace with your lively

And colorful jokes!

Jaunty

My grandpa’s big hat

Made him look oh so dashing

When he went to town.

Here are two movements from the Well Tempered Clavier

from a recording I did in 2000.  

Prelude in B-flat Minor by J.S. Bach   

Prelude in C Major by J.S. Bach

The TRUCK ALPHABET is a "hat-tip" to my Dad who is a retired "semi-driver" as Mom always called his occupation. He transported cargo more than a million miles in his career all over the USA. 

[Here is a link to PART 2 of the Haiku Alphabet Project]