Sunday, January 29, 2023

How to think if you want to write a form of Haiku

You think about a subject you want to write something about.

Then you try to be the most economical with words that you can on the subject without losing the purpose of the writing.

For example, if I want to write about the subject of the ocean here's what comes off the top of my head:

The ocean

Calls me

Always

Although this also happened to me more when I was younger that the mountains called me always so I might write about Mountains in this way too.

The Mountains

Call me

Always

So then one has to look at what this call to the oceans or the mountains mean.

So, in the 1970s I didn't like living in the Greater San Diego area or the Los Angeles Area anymore. So, I did everything possible to move with my then wife and son to Mt. Shasta. So, this is how I would say this after I tried this around 1976:

It's hard 

to support yourself

out in the country

 in the mountains

Unless you are a lawyer, musician who travels or truck driver of a long haul nature trying to find good work out in the country is hard to do. Why?

Because the people who live there already are always going to try to corner all the jobs for their children which economically will tend to drive you away if you don't have a source of income that comes from another area.

So, for example, I went from working as a foreman in an electronics company where my wife then and I both worked until she got too pregnant to subletting my friend's apartment in Mt. Shasta while he was away to get started living in mt. Shasta with my wife and baby. To me, it was less important what I did for a living and what was most important was being with my wife and child in Mt. Shasta which is a place we both loved and love to this day.

However, the reality became that since I wasn't used to working at that altitude or in that much heat in the summer time that I got heat stroke from the transition and was so physically not okay that I had to quit my tree planting job even though it paid about 100 dollars a day then around 1976 or so.

This then caused a chain of events where my wife and baby and I wound up in Hilo, Hawaii for late 1974.

Here is a type of Haiku that is Fred Style for Hawaii:

Hawaii

Heaven on Earth

If you can survive it

What do I mean by this?

When you vacation in Hawaii everyone supports you doing this. When you live there the locals want you to leave because they want all the jobs for their children so they don't have to leave the Islands and go to the mainland to get jobs.

So, the point is yes. Hawaii can be heaven on earth but it also can be hell living there too on many levels if you aren't just vacationing there. The most successful from the mainland get jobs in restaurants or as bartenders and live in fancy Condos with 5 people living there sharing renting the same Condominium.

But, if you are a family just remember it is going to cost 3 times as much as the mainland to live there every year and if you cannot manage that then you likely will have to leave one day. So, for example, if you are making 25,000 to 35,000 a year here it takes about 3 times that much to live anywhere in the Hawaiian Islands successfully. I'm not including living in your car or van there by the way. I know some people who did this but that can be sort of dangerous there if you know what I mean.

So, often it is the single or rich people who can make a go of it on the Hawaiian Islands and be happy there if they are from the mainland.

So, for me, thinking like one needs to to write these short cryptic pieces is mostly about refining your thoughts down to the very basics so you can get clarity about something you want clarity about.

For example:

Enlightenment

Brings Peace

If you are serious about it

for a lifetime

 By God's Grace

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

No comments:

Post a Comment