Haiku and Annie Dillard

This evening, I read a wonderful piece on Annie Dillard's book The Writing Life and haiku in the Wales Haiku Journal by Michael Dylan Welch. 

I have not written many haiku, but I agree with those who say that the 5-7-5 syllable count in English is not what makes something a haiku (nor is it strictly necessary). I am better able to write haiku when I've spent time in nature, or when I am truly in the moment and paying attention. 

Coincidentally, I have a Dillard book at home in my "to-read" pile, recommended by a coworker. And I have been delving back into haiku. So stumbling across this article felt like synchronicity. And I love synchronicity. 

Just look at this bit by Welch, quoting Dillard:

...Dillard says not to hold back: “One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better” (78–79). What more can the haiku poet use for inspiration in writing poems that are not just one-breath poems, but last-breath poems? Give your all.

Excellent advice. Note to self: remember this. Do it.