Writing Haikus - Beyond the Seventeen Syllables

Distilling essence.
Syllable by syllable.
Life's meaning unfolds.



Note:

The word "distilling" conjures what I used to teach before I retired, chemistry.  Part of what we did in the lab was to distill (or the process of boiling off volatiles) all kinds of stuff, natural or chemical mixtures. The goal is to come up with an end product that we wanted isolated from the rest. Perfumes and alcohol products are processed this way.

Writing haikus, I find, is similar in approach.   The required meager words make you separate the essentials from the non essential ones.  It becomes then a journey into your soul. What do you hold important? What do you want to convey? What emotions do you want to elicit?

Since it is a challenge with words and thoughts, writing haikus has turned for me into a game and has become not only enlightening but fun. Yes, you become a word geek and addicted.