Your Better Angels, a haiku poem

Your Better AngelsA Haiku poem by Jenny BienemannYour better angelswant you to know they are therewatching over you  Every heart must learnto fly and fall and not breakso they send you birdsBirds will sing your heartright back into your chest, homelike it never left Very suddenlywhat could never be made rightdissolves into hopeThat’s just what they dothose better angels of ourswe hardly notice  When you can’t believewhat is happening to youlook for the feathers  tiny little signsall around you, all the timefor you, only you So many ways of looking at the world.  And each way has its own way of working with your heart and mind.  For this Sunday, I started with the idea of a message from our better angels.  Especially when I write the Sunday Haiku Milieu haikus, I ask my muse to think about my readers.  What do they need to hear?  What can I share about what I truly think, that would bring comfort, meaning or peace to them?   I loved the idea that our better angels were trying to get a message across, and was thrilled when the line "want you to know they are there" had seven syllables!  The next question was: should I use the phrase "looking out for you" or "watching over you?"  Ultimately, that was determined by the image, and I used each in different ways. While I can't imagine that I will never NOT love the line and motion of black ink on thirsty paper, I could not have imagined how much I would enjoy drenching the ink drawings in color, and experiencing how it changes the meaning of the image, ultimately influencing the haiku.  You can see the progression: drawing, color, haiku. It is OK if the image and haiku are not written together, or at the same time, but they do have to WORK together.  This is why I ultimately chose the simpler image. I thought it worked better with the haiku. When you're a songwriter, everyone asks, music or lyrics first?   People have started asking me: image or haiku first?  And all I can say to both is: YES.  Both are first sometimes.  They influence and depend on each other.  But nothing is final until it is FINAL.  I changed every stanza of the "Your Better Angels" poem, and played with the size of the image that whole entire time.  I think I'm done now...but let's see.  By the time I post this, I may have changed my mind! And as much as we might wish that the ideas arrived fully baked and ready to serve...that is rarely the case.  You have to figure out how to stay present for long stretches of time and lean into not knowing if and how and when it will all work out. Spoiler alert: it always does. Eventually Even when it doesn't.  :) Thanks for being with me on this journey!  I love hearing from you.  Want to get on the Sunday Haiku Milieu train?  Sign up here: haikumilieu.com.