I started this blog five years ago today. For those of you who don’t know, I actually started the blog at the same moment that I began to learn to write haiku, and both endeavors had the same cause: I needed to write regularly, and I needed to find something to write, and somewhere to write it.
These were things I’d been trying to figure out literally my entire life (okay, maybe literally my entire life minus about the first four years), and within about two weeks of starting this blog I knew I’d finally got it. It wasn’t just haiku the literary genre that made me feel at home, it was haiku the literary community. Instant friends! Constant support! Artistic fulfillment! No wonder I’ve stuck this out about ten times longer than I’ve stuck out any other writing project of my life.
This is also actually my one thousandth blog post (and please don’t ask me anything about the complicated calculations that went into making sure the two events would coincide because I’m already embarrassed enough about my OCD). Over the course of a thousand posts the blog has evolved a lot–I’ve discovered not just haiku but haibun, haiga, and tanka, and experimented with a lot of random weird stuff that might not have made sense to anyone but me but made me happy at the time.
Through it all, to my amazement, you people have kept coming back and saying nice things. I would just like to state here for the record that I have NEVER received a mean comment on this blog, which considering that we’re talking about the Internet is probably worthy of a mention in a history book somewhere. Basically, you’re all saints and I’m incredibly lucky, and I would like to thank you one thousand times for the welcome you’ve given me and the sense of purpose and excitement about art and existence you’ve all helped inject into my life, by being out there, by reading, by responding, by reaching out.
I’d like to get more eloquent and profound than this, but I find myself kind of mute with gratitude and awe and also I don’t think it would be fair to reward you for your faithful support by boring you to death. Happy May Day, is about all I have left to say at this point. Happy
everything
I forgot to say
in one flower
Dear Melissa:
Congratulations for this blog, but specially, for this great haiku. It has (to me) the taste of the great haijin (such as Onitsura, S. Masajo or T. Santoka).
Great, suggestive haiku, in my modest opinnion.
Keep on the good work.
Yours,
E.
Thanks for the amazing compliment, Elias…I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Wonderful , perfectlt worded. I too, feel the same way about blogging. It has been so much more than i ever expected 🙂 yay for us
Love your blog, Jessie! Thanks for reading here. 🙂
Thanks so much 🙂
congrats, Melissa. Keep on making this wonderful place blossom!!!
thanks jb…and thanks for your work, always such an inspiration, and support. 🙂
Congratulation… Though of course it’s we who should be thanking you.
We all need each other, is what I say! Your work has been an inspiration to me from the beginning, David.
Melissa,
I’ve learned so much from your learning. Feels like we’ve been classmates in Haiku College. Though so often you know more than the professors, or at least could communicate it so much better, that they just let you run the place. All the better. Hope we never graduate.
Keep on.
–Peter
Graduate!? What, and stop pulling all-nighters and sitting around talking about nothing for hours? No way! (and thank you Peter for all you’ve taught me and all your encouragement over the years…)
only met you that once at Haiku Circle but feel like your a friend. . . and so you are : )
oh, well, yes, I meant the conversations metaphorically. 😉 but i feel the same…
hey, dear Melissa, lucky for us! lucky for you! thanx for all the inspiration!!
Lucky for me indeed! Thanks for being there, Susan. ❤
I subscribe to very few things, but yours is easily one of the best. I am constantly amazed and delighted by the work you do. I especially love the creative artwork! Here’s to another thousand!
Thanks so much, Paul! I really appreciate your support.
Congrats. Happy 5th, and 1000th.
Thanks, Bob! By the way, recently ordered and read “Ethiopian Time”…fantastic work (no surprise, yours are some of the best haibun out there).
You are a real inspiration. Truly.
Awww…thanks so much, Mary. 🙂
Congratulations on the blog’s anniversary and your continued path of inspiration. You are amazing!
Thanks for the creative ideas, the art that you share.
Thanks, Mary! I appreciate all your support over the years.
It’s been nothing but a pleasure to follow your blog.
I wish you came to visit twitter more often, but you can’t have everything.
Wishing you more years of great haiku, haibun, and general randomness.
Thanks, Kris! It’s been a pleasure to have you here. 🙂 (And sorry about Twitter, but it makes me break out in hives. 😉 )
Congrats … Melissa. Dragonfly and your work are all a pleasure to read. Don
Thanks, Don…I feel the same way about Lilliput. 🙂
I am glad you started. I have enjoyed the little part of the path I have joined you on. I hope it continues. I will be here reading as long as it does.
Thanks! Glad to have you around. 🙂
Subarashi desu!
-Patrick
Arigato gozaimasu!