"Damien's Haiku" is a small collection of 20 haiku that the author intends to add to over time. Damien (twitter/instagram) is a skilled rpg writer but they wanted to get back to trying to do poetry. Haiku are one of the first poetic forms a lot of writers distinctly learn about as children so they often end up holding personal, cultural, or nostalgic significance to readers for a long time. Their rules of format make writing them feel very satisfying. You have limitations to how much you can say, but need to convey the same message that a much longer poem could. In a way, it's a really good practice if you're an overly-wordy poet (I am, so I should probably revisit haiku myself) in determining how to stick to the essentials in your writing. Damien themself said that they "ended up making these very personal but I hope at least one speaks something to you" and I have to say that even though there may not be a massive volume of content here in this collection, so much of every single haiku really captured the sorts of sad or desperate thoughts I know I have all the time. In a way, this medium for these thoughts really is the perfect pairing. The rhythm of their presentation ends up feeling just how a mind stitches fragments together into sentences. A lovely submission, and I look forward to more of Damien's poetry.

"Remember all the things you were told, so you know later what were lies"