Poetry Pandemic

First off, my heart goes out to everyone adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

How are you coping with social distancing or self-isolation? Has it prompted any poetry (haiku or otherwise)? As a writer who spends a lot of time working alone at home, the health scare hasn’t changed my routine a lot. But I will go stir crazy if I don’t get out of the house for walks and occasionally get-together with family and friends. I’m not sick, so I can go out, but it’s hard to maintain distancing on public transit, which means I’m either staying home, or trying to avoid peak times for crowds (plus, of course, doing a lot of hand-washing).

crowded Skytrain
a new awareness
of shared air

[Update March 18, 2020: now staying at home and not using public transit]

I’m also going for more lone walks closer to home, enjoying the spring blossoms and bird songs, and I just experienced my first video-chat meeting today (via Zoom), which was actually kind of fun. With the cancelling of upcoming conferences and travel plans, I’m travelling vicariously through getting back to working on the train haiku anthology (after temporary derailment by other work commitments). I’ll be posting an update later in the spring and should have a book cover image to share soon!

If you have any pandemic poetry, or creative ideas for weathering the Corvid-19 precaution period (while staying safe and keeping others safe), please share.