By Randi Bjornstad
It’s been a hard time, curtailing everything from school to work to hanging out and chatting without masks or fears of giving or getting viruses to or from each other.
It’s been a long time, and we have no idea yet how long it still will be until life becomes normal again. Will it become normal again?
So how about describing these difficult days — or the ways we cope with this situation — with some haiku, which originated in Japan hundreds of years ago, using the traditional form of 17 syllables, divided into three lines of five, seven, and five.
Haiku arose often from something the poet observed in nature, with the first two lines describing the thing or situation, and the third drawing a succinct philosophical, emotional, or physical conclusion about it.
Here are my first quick attempts:
___
Everyone stays in,
waiting to be free again.
Spring shines bright outside
___
Outside nature thrives,
absorbing the warmth of spring.
We huddle within
___
People walking past,
masks obscuring their faces.
Before was better
___
Email your pandemic haiku to hurrahforarts@gmail.com, including your name and hometown, and let’s see what we can come up with as we put our poetic heads together to cope with this disruption to life, art, and culture.
Thanks …
