"The problem with hai-/ ku is that you just get started/ and then you have..."

Thomas Kula has come a long way since that first haiku, written back in July 2005 to mark the start of a journey that recently passed the five-year milestone.

Kula -- who moved to Ypsilanti from Ames, Iowa, nearly four years ago -- had actually been doing haiku for years. But it was never with the sense of purpose he found after visiting Copacetic Comics in Pittsburgh and becoming acquainted with the works of cartoonist Ben Snakepit, who has been drawing a comic strip a day for almost a decade.

"I can't really draw," Kula thought, "But I had been writing haiku for years."

Since college, actually, when he and a group of friends used to trade haiku-themed e-mail threads.

"Sometimes we'd have a dozen messages going back and forth, all written in haiku," Kula said. "Especially around finals time."

And so for the last five years and change, or approximately 1,900 days, Kula has been committed to the motto of "17 syllables a day, every day" referring to the three-line, 5-7-5 syllable Japanese poetic form.

"Haiku can get a lot more involved than just 5-7-5, but that's all I do," Kula said.

When Kula started in July 2005, the goal was to go a full decade. That is still the goal, and he’s more than half way there.

He publishes his work in zines, printed on his home printer, that he sells at events like Ypsilanti’s Shadow Art Fair.

If he quits writing it won't be because the money isn't right. Money has never been the goal, and with a handmade product line where nothing goes for more than $2, money hasn't materialized.

"If I start trying to push these ‘zines and make postcards and do all the marketing, getting the expensive printing, then it becomes a job," explained Kula, who spends his days as a computer programmer for the University of Michigan. "And I don't need another job."

Kula was more drawn to the challenge than anything else, at least at the start. Haiku-a-day presents two: Telling a story in exactly 17 syllables, no more, no less, and doing it every single day.

"I like the limitations of the form," Kula explained from a window table at the Ugly Mug Café in Ypsilanti. "It's fun to take on that challenge and be able to communicate something."

Kula’s haikus and his zines, titled "Late Night Thinking," are all published by Kula's imprint, St. Joshua Norton Press.

Alternative history lovers will recognize the namesake of that imprint, Joshua Norton, as the self-proclaimed "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico."

"I don't want this to be about me, I wanted it to be about the work" Kula explained. "And," Kula added after a belly laugh, “St. Joshua Norton Press sounds a lot more impressive than 'some dude making zines on his laser printer at home.'"

Norton was literally a San Francisco "Forty-niner," using a family bequest to move to the Bay Area from England in 1849. But Norton came for rice, not the gold rush, and spent his nest egg trying. When three ships of rice arrived in town the same day as his, and supply drove down prices, Norton went bust.

He went away for a few years then re-emerged as the self-styled Emperor, writing letters advising President Abraham Lincoln on how to proceed in the War Between the States, writing the House and Senate telling them that since he had occupied his post as Emperor, they could go home and he could get on with running the country.

When Norton created his own currency, clothiers and restaurants accepted it as legal tender. Upon his death in 1880 he was given a full Masonic burial and a headstone as overstated as his persona.

"He didn't hurt anyone, and for the most part people humored him, people played along." Kula marveled.

Kula was up late one night and got to thinking: If every man needs a castle, every castle needs a country. And every country - Ames, in Kula's case - needs a patron saint, which is where Joshua Norton comes in.

Kula's favorite part of making the zines is using them to barter for other cool stuff, usually other zines.

"There's something very cool about holding something in your hand that someone else made," Kula said. "I like getting something in the mail that's not a bill or trying to sell you something, and I think a lot of people feel that way."

He times the release of his zines and haiku books to match up with the twice-annual Shadow Art Fair in Ypsilanti.

"Shadow Art Fair was one of the first things I did when I moved to Ypsilanti from Iowa" in late 2006, Kula said. "I feel a real affinity for that event," which is why he brings his zines there every July and December.

In addition to the hand-made zines, Kula writes haikus on demand and sells haiku gift certificates, which can be redeemed at a later date.

"You've got to do the hard part, coming up with the idea," Kula said. "Then I write the haiku, and if you like it, you give me a dollar. If not, you don't have to pay. In the more than 100 I've done, only one guy didn't like it and didn't pay.

"You'd think it wouldn't matter, it's just a dollar, but whatever," Kula continued after a beat. "It's not about the money."

What it’s about is connecting with zine writers and readers the world over. Anyone can access St. Joshua Norton Press online. But with so few zines created and shipped, Kula is always amazed at all the places they go.

One time Kula left some haiku gift certificates at a San Francisco hostel. A time later Kula heard from a woman who'd done a mother-daughter trip to San Francisco before the daughter's marriage. She wanted Kula to write a haiku in honor of her daughter's first wedding anniversary.

Another time, Kula sent a book of his haikus to a friend who was teaching English in France. She ended up using the zines in class.

"You've got French students learning a Japanese form, taught in English. That's pretty cool," Kula said.

"These things end up in the craziest places."

James David Dickson can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com. For more Ypsilanti stories, visit our Ypsilanti page.