A Holiday (Not a Haiku): Our December Poetry Playlist

December at Tweetspeak Poetry!

As you may know, each month we bring you a musical playlist that relates to the month’s poetry theme. It’s our hope that the playlist will give you a bit of an inspirational soundtrack, maybe spark the working out of some good poetry. But this month, when our Managing Editor, L.L. Barkat, informed me that the December theme would be haiku, I thought, “Great . . . how many seventeen-syllable songs could there be out there?”

Turns out, not many.

So as a bit of a compromise, I’ve composed a list of my all-time favorite holiday songs. The old standbys are there to give you a bit of a touchstone–Mariah Carey, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland. There are some tunes that might be new, though, might stretch you a bit—The Shins, The Polyphonic Spree, Andrew Byrd. Give a listen and see what holiday creativity they might spark.

And believe it or not, I have a writing prompt that fits nicely with this month’s haiku theme. You’ll want to make sure you participate for reasons I’ll explain next week.

Enjoy the playlist, and have a happy holiday!

Writing Prompt: Do you remember how to write a haiku—that ancient Japanese poetic style? A haiku is composed of seventeen syllables, usually divided in sections of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. This month, we’re asking you to join us in writing holiday haiku. Give it a try. Listen to the Tweetspeak Holiday playlist, and scratch a haiku in the comments below.

And remember, he knows if you’ve been bad or haiku, so be haiku for goodness sake. Who’s first?

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Tweetspeak’s December Holiday Haiku Poetry Prompt:

This month’s theme at Tweetspeak is “haiku.” So–you guessed it–we’re composing haiku poems. Perhaps you’ll scrawl a holiday haiku (there’s plenty of inspiration on our December playlist), but feel free to explore whatever ideas come to mind. How do you participate?

1.  Study up a bit on haiku poetry, that ancient Japanese style wherein a poem is composed of seventeen syllables, usually divided in sections of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. Listen to the Tweetspeak monthly playlist for a bit of inspiration.

2.  Compose your own haiku, whether holiday themed or otherwise.

3. Tweet your poems to us. Add a #TSHaiku hashtag so we can find it and maybe share it with the world.

4. If you aren’t a twitter user, leave your found poem here in the comment box.

5. At the end of the month, we’ll choose a winning poem and ask the winner to record his or her poem to be featured in one of our upcoming Weekly Top 10 Poetic Picks.

And speaking of winners, last month’s winner was Donna, writer at The Brighter Side. In “Marble in a Jar, ” she composes an echo poem that paints a vivid word picture that captures the essence of October’s “surrealism” theme. She writes:

My mind is a marble bouncing

           Bouncing in a jar in a child’s grip

 Grip of thoughts’ random firing

           Firing against smooth walls

 Walls of glass offer no place to land

            Land is a cornerless plane

 Plane soars, engines rolling

            Rolling and bouncing in a jar

Make sure you check out Donna’s poem at her blog, and consider leaving her a comment, to boot!

That being done, let’s create some holiday haiku poetry! Who’s first?

Photo by Nanagyei, Creative Commons via Flickr. Post by Seth Haines. 

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Buy a year of Every Day Poems, just $2.99 — Read a poem a day, become a better poet. In December we’re exploring the theme Haiku.