Writer Wednesdays: Dani Harris

Hi, I'm Dani. I am a Twitter friend of Kristin's and quite honored for her to have invited me to participate in her guest post series by writers. To be honest, I'm stunned because I just started my blog in February 2010 and only began writing in January 2010. I write haiku, senryu, verse....not the rhyming type of poetry.

My journey into writing actually began on Twitter when I accidentally started following writers and poets. If you are not familiar with the Twitterverse, it is quite amazing. It is the perfect medium for short verse with it's limit of 140 characters, and the poetry "community" is very active with several group haiku challenges every day. The general definition of haiku is a verse of three parts made up of 5 syllables/7 syllables/ 5 syllables. There actually are more requirements, but this is the basis most used on Twitter. A word is selected and anyone who would likes can tweet a haiku containing that word, and individuals will randomly tweet haiku, too. I fell in love with the art form and eventually got enough courage to tweet my own words.

Quite to my surprise and delight, the writing and poetry communities both embraced me, which led to starting my own blog haiku love songs. It's also quite unexpected because I've never done any type of writing before and I'm 58 years old. {{cringe}} A young 58-year-old grandmother. I have no formal education, or really even any basic knowledge, of writing. What I do know is that the words are here now and I must write.

I was quite intimidated to attempt this post and was discussing it with another poet/Twitter friend. He said I write from my heart, and I do. The verse may not have anything to do with my real life, but every word contains a piece of me. Sometimes it can leave me feeling quite raw and exposed emotionally. Most of what I write is triggered by a song, or a bird or something I'm doing, like unbraiding my hair....usually there is an urgency to get to the computer or a pencil and paper because the words start flowing. {And I have a really bad memory, being so old and all.}

Once in a while when I read the finished verse, it doesn't feel right so I put it away and go back to it later. Occasionally, I sit down to write without anything in mind because I need something to post to my blog. But 95% of the time, the words flow... through me, not from me....and I just leave them alone.

So, am I a writer? I write. Why do I write? Because the words are forcing their way out. Am I any good? That is something beyond my ability to judge, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it.

Thanks again to Kristin for so generously inviting me here. The final moral of my writing story is that it's never too late to start.

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You can enjoy Dani's poetry by following her blog: haiku love songs And you can also follow her on Twitter: @ddh77 .

Thank you Dani for a very inspirational post and perfect timing since it is National Poetry Month. Thanks also to all of you who have stopped by today.

Kristin : )

If you would like more info about this series follow this link Writer Wednesdays: The Intro .