When I teach graduate students about writing master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, I ask them to write a haiku that describes their topics. I tell them: if you can’t put your topic into a haiku, you don’t know it well enough yet.

So, as I’m working on the structure of The Law of Immediate Forgiveness, making sure all the pieces of the story are in place, and flow from one another, and have a meaning, I thought I’d give myself the same exercise. Each story has a heart, and expressing the heart of the story in haiku helps clarify everything else about it.

I’m using the 5-7-5 form for these poems.

The Law of Immediate Forgiveness: Haiku 1

It takes forgiveness

To love. And it takes love to

Forgive. That’s the Law.

The Law of Immediate Forgiveness: Haiku 2

A dog’s heart knows all.

Licky the black Lab’s heart knows

Love, and when to fart.

The Law of Immediate Forgiveness: Haiku 3

First, forgive yourself.

Then you learn what you need to

Forgive everyone.