Poetry
Freestyle Haiku
Est. 2010. Free forever. By Matto.















You can read all 1,250 poems (and counting) for free at https://FreestyleHaiku.com.
Background
I started writing poetry to help me process and appreciate the heightened emotions I started to experience in 2010. While a traumatic event triggered these changes, I used the practice of writing poetry to focus my mind and allow myself the opportunity to reflect on my spirituality and humanity.
I decided to publish the poetry to a public blog (that I didn’t tell anyone about) to force myself to become more comfortable with sharing my emotional, spiritual, and sexual nature. After a couple years, I had hundreds of poems written and I started to share my work. I never stopped.
This project has shaped me as much as I have shaped it.
The Project
The majority of my poetry is short and haiku-like, but they don’t follow the traditional form that many readers expect. These poems are written in a free-verse style that I call Freestyle Haiku. I discovered the possibility of this more freeing style of haiku from the writings of the Zen priest, Santōka Teneda (1882-1940). He wandered and traveled during the later years of his life while writing haiku.
I enjoy writing poetry, because I can express abstract and powerful feelings in only a few words–free from a mandated structure. These poems are the most direct crystallization of my feelings and experiences, and the brevity of haiku draws attention to the exact words I choose…
But sometimes I write longer poems, too,
Which might be more like a renga, than haiku,
But this doesn’t really matter to me…
and I doubt it does to you. 😉

Not sure where to start?
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- You could start with those most recently written.
- You could choose a chapter to start on.
- You could start at the beginning.