Haiku is a type of short form poetry with its origin from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 phonetic units or syllables in a 5, 7, 5 pattern that typically includes a kireji and a kigo. Clearly mine are freer of the rules except in adhering to the 5, 7, 5 pattern so one can argue that senryū is a more fitting description of my poetry.

To me the correct description mattered not in the slightest. It was the pattern and the rule of 5, 7, 5 that afforded me what I craved in myself prescribed therapy. As I woke up nearing a milestone birthday to the news of my diagnosis; a chronic illness; one of the rarest; no cure and unpredictable of symptoms, my meticulously organised and cautiously controlled world fell apart. It was my worst nightmare – to lose control. And so it was only inevitable that I held on to some form of control and ravelled in some form of rules even in pursuit of therapy. 5, 7, 5 became my prescription to regain the smallest of control and a pinch of sanity.

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