It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since I signed up for the Modern Letter Project. Sadly, it’s almost two years since the administrators of the project folded their tent. I was a prolific letter writer in my youth, so the year-plus I spent writing to folks through the project was a real kick for me.

I miss writing letters the way I used to before I got old and businesslike in my ways. And I suspect the lack of interpersonal handwriting in my life was a factor in the birth of my handwritten haiku habit.

There are other efforts apparently, like the Letter Writers Alliance, which I’d consider to sate my thirst for more letter-writing. But I wish I had more friends and acquaintances with whom to exchange old-fashioned correspondence (most of the friends I have aren’t prone to sending actual letters).

Does anyone else ever get the urge to scribble a note to an actual person?

image: pareeerica

I decided to kick off the guest appearances with this haiku from Anthony, a fairly frequent commenter on this site who blogs (and sometimes composes haiku) at My Sick Mind. If you’re from these parts (Philly), you know who the haiku is about. If not, you can collect a little context from this post on Anthony’s site.

If you’d like to contribute your own longhand haiku, read more here.

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I’ve been doing this (mostly) handwritten haiku routine since the beginning of the month. It’s a little extra effort, but it’s kind of fun doing something different. The idea came from a post on Colin’s blog (the newly retitled First initial, last name), and was subsequently encouraged by a few of my favorite commenters.

Two and a half weeks into this experiment, I’m starting to wonder if I might be able to get some input from my little audience of haiku readers. If anyone would be so inclined, I’d love to be able to post a few guest haiku of the handwritten variety. Anyone willing to try is welcome to send an image of a self-written haiku. They don’t have to be in any particular style of writing — however you write is fine. It can be as artistic or as straightforward as you like.

If you’d like to help me out, please email any offerings or questions to me at howard@nonbreakingspace.com. Please feel free to take part, or click here to check out the contributions collected thus far.

NOTE: Though it didn’t occur to me to post this originally, I want to make sure everyone understands that I won’t try to take credit for any contributions sent my way. I will credit each one as the author specifies, including a link to the contributor’s website if applicable. Also, images can be hosted here, or served from a third-party site such as Flickr.

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