The following endorsement (?) of
NaHaiWriMo was posted to Facebook on 7 March 2012 by Kathabela Wilson. Don’t
say you were never warned!
 “I first
heard about NaHaiWriMo by someone mumbling weird sounds under their breath.
When I asked them to speak up, they said the same thing again, whatever it was.
I asked, what does this word mean? Their eyes lit up and then they explained
it. All right, I said, so I went and looked on Facebook and liked the page. I
knew Michael Dylan Welch had started it, so I thought, okay, it has to be good.
This was about a year ago when I was young and innocent. Then it happened. It
took over my life. Well, for a while. Then I thought . . . no, no, I can’t let
it happen. It’s a trap, that’s what it is, with magic incantations too. ‘NaHaiWriMo’
. . . Say it over and over and see what happens to you. Well I dipped in over
the last year and tasted it again a little, thinking I was a free person. But
then it happened again. I no longer had any control. You’ll notice that ‘NaHaiWriMo’
means ‘National Haiku Writing Month’—I still explain this to people who hear me mumble it and they look at me
sideways. Well the month never ends. It’s an endless feast. You have to think
before you recommend it . . . but I do. Your life will be full of poems, your
head will be full of haiku night and day, you will dream of haiku, wake up with
haiku in your mind, your husband will be afraid to get out of bed because you
will read him fifteen new haiku before coffee. You will suddenly know the deep
thoughts of hundreds of new friends, and one of them may even decide to turn
into a nine-headed earthworm (really, this happened in his haiku). And after
thinking about that for three days you will decide you love it. So . . . be
careful. It’s too much fun, and how will you get anything else done? Well, the
good energy and humor gives a great dynamic to your day, and um, you may lose
weight . . . I haven’t even made breakfast yet.” —Kathabela
Wilson, Pasadena, California
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