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May 2, 2005

Meta-Haiku Compressed NOW with More Homage (Proportionally)

words wasted
to make lines work--doomed
to failure

words wasted
to fill lines--reduced
to white noise

to fill lines
words wasted--flaccid
poetry

Too many
words to make the count
poems flabby

add words--force
lines--chaos--can't get
your wordsworth

© 2005, Steven Riddle

I was talking about how the Japanese compose haiku and how in some cases the lines consist of a single word and its identifier particles. I had read it suggested that the syllabification for an English form that presented the same challenges would be 3-5-3--reducing 17 syllables to 11. Above is the transformation that occurs when it is tried on the admittedly poor hiaku of the previous version.

Posted by Steven Riddle at May 2, 2005 11:13 AM

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Comments

All very true. It's easy to see when Shakespeare or other great poets were in the groove: As if they were speaking without regard to form and their words merely happened to fall into iambic pentameter onto the page.

well done, Heron, and poetically thoughtful...

Posted by: Dan at May 2, 2005 1:48 PM

I'm sorry
As I read further
Messages

Bright wisdom
Alters darkened prose
Doggy treat

Muttered curse
Apology verse
New discource

Posted by: Eupholome at January 13, 2008 7:14 PM

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