My latest visual haiku is a New Year’s resolution on the theme of dance. During 2025 I was dancing Salsa regularly at The Hyde Park Bandstand, usually on a Sunday afternoon. However the outdoor season came to an end in November and despite indoor club alternatives I haven’t danced socially since then. I dance at home on a daily basis but it’s not the same as partner or group dancing, such as participating in the Cuban wheel dance Rueda de Casino which I love. So in 2026 I would like to dance some more!
Strangely, even whilst dancing on a weekly basis I came across some “instructions” in the form of graffiti on the streets reminding me to dance some more. This happened on several occasion in locations as diverse as London’s East End and Camden Town as well as in New York City. The photographs in this visual haiku were predominantly shot in 2025 on a mixture of camera and iPhone; most recently a photo of my TV screen during the Christmas edition of Strictly Come Dancing featuring the message on the back of Claudia Winkleman’s jacket. The exception is the final image; an iPhone selfie taken in the ladies loos of the London Coliseum at the start of the 2019 season of Gloria Estefan’s On Your Feet. Another dance connection is the fact that the tattoo stating Carpe Diem – Latin for Seize the Day – belongs to Santos, one of the regular dancers and Rueda leaders at the Bandstand.
With regards my photographic take on a haiku, the original inspiration is a Japanese poem often evoking nature and ephemera. The traditional format for a haiku is three lines containing 17 syllables (the first line has 5 syllables , line two 7 and line three 5). This haiku also functions as an image-based New Year’s resolution whilst conforming to the traditional haiku syllabic structure.
Keep dancing dancer
Carpe Diem dance some more
!Dance! That Conga beat
