No show Perseids 2009 - Hello to HIYA poetry.

Originally I wrote this back in August of 2009. 

It was going to be a post about meteors, but ended up as an introduction to a poetry form that I'd been mulling over for several months.

Vincent van Gogh

Up on the Preseli Hills:

Two camper vans, tea and cakes, plus guitars, harmonicas, and several good friends, we waited for the night to unfold.

We were all hoping to see the Perseid shower at its maximum that evening, but the Pembrokeshire sky had different ideas, we ended up with total cloud cover for the entire evening.

No matter, we still had good company, lots of tea and cake and we spent several hours talking, laughing and playing guitars.

At about 3.00 am I lay awake peeping at Jupiter through a gap in the cloud, but still no meteors. 

With no meteors to concentrate on, my mind turned to poetry matters, namely the syllabic count of haiku.

Whilst pondering the poetical, I slowly fell back to sleep; a haiku style seed was germinating.

Hello to HIYA.

That morning I had an idea for a poetry form that might be of interest to poets, I call it HIYA. *

Firstly you make a chart as follows:

Then you choose any word you want to make your poem.

For example I will use the letters of my name:  MARK.

Look up each letter of your word on the above chart.  

Write down the corresponding number you see above it.

My word MARK would read as follows:
M=4, A=1, R=9, K=2

Once you correspond a number to each of your letters, you then use this number as a syllable count for each line of your poem.

Poem for the Perseids

                                                                                               Syllable Count

Throughout the night                 4         M

Clouds                               1         A

Rest upon the Preseli hill tops      9         R
I sigh.                              2         K

Any word or combination of words can be used, plus the poem can be split up into any length verse you see fit. 

Have a go, see what you think.

Have a guess what my initial word was in this poem. 

Tea Party for the Perseids

We sit so patiently waiting

Surrounded by clouds

Time for tea

Time for cake

Time to talk with old friends.

That evening back in August of 2009 may not of revealed any meteors, but I'm glad it revealed the HIYA.

*Why is it call it HIYA?

As a child, there was a lady I once knew, who lived at the end of my grandmother's street.

Everytime she spotted me walking past she would shout out "HIYA" at the top of her voice.

Her voice was high and loud !.. I would often be startled out of my daydreaming as I walked past her window.

Plus HIYA sounds a bit like HAIKU.