Poetry / Reading / Writing

Poetry Friday: Found Haiku

Catherine Flynn14 Comments

My friend and critique group partner, Linda Mitchell, was in the “spotlight” at Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’s blog, Today’s Little Ditty, last week. Linda challenged Poetry Friday friends to “create a ‘found haiku’ from “an interesting article.” This challenge appealed to me immediately and I found two article in last weekend’s New York Times that had potential. The first article is “Kids Need a Digital Detox: A Ball,” by Nellie Bowles.

digital detox:
playing with blocks and painting
live fully present

Perfect advice, don’t you think?

The next article, “Letter of Recommendation: Dinghy Rowing,” by Heidi Julavits, made me want to go buy a dinghy. It was a joy to read and reread this exquisite piece of writing, finding just the right lines for this haiku.

Full confession: I did have to rearrange some phrases slightly to meet the 5-7-5 syllable count in both haiku.

Thank you, Linda and Michelle, for this fun challenge!

Please be sure to visit Jone MacCulloch at Deo Writer for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

14 thoughts on “Poetry Friday: Found Haiku”

  1. Oh, I love these! Isn’t it fun searching for just the right phrases to build a a haiku? The idea of digital is spot on…but, I am absolutely drawn to the dinghy and the peace that it promises me as I read it.

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  2. You are inspiring me, Catherine. I want to, but still haven’t found the time to create something for Linda’s challenge. These are both wonderful. I read the ‘digital detox’ article, sad, but good. I’d love to have a dingy, too, taking it out on a lazy summer day. The pictures are just right, as is ‘watching your past recede’.

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  3. Oh, these are wonderful, Catherine! I’d hoped to add one found haiku to my post this week and just couldn’t pull it together. I’ve been playing around with the prompt and have found it very challenging. I have a pile of rejects so far, but you’ve inspired me to try, try again! (Also, I’m glad you admitted to a smidge of judicious rearranging–I’ll consider that a green light to fiddle just a bit if necessary!)

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  5. I love Linda’s challenge this month. Not only do I get to read some beautiful haiku, but I’m finding lots of other good writing to enjoy with the articles! You found some beautiful lines to create your haiku.

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  6. These are just lovely. I’ve been thinking about Linda’s challenge this month, but find that when I am reading a nonfiction article, I end up getting so engrossed in making meaning, that even if I notice a line, I still end up forgetting about it. Perhaps I need to go back and reread?

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  9. The flow from Tabatha’s post to yours is all kinds of perfect.

    And now I want a dinghy and a place to row. (and row and row and row until what I do matches what I imagine it could/should be like)…

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  11. Catherine, your found poems are just wonderful. A digital detox is such a great set of words. No wonder that you gravitated to these articles to find inspiration. If you are interested in sending me your found #imagepoem for my #EmbraceableSummer Gallery, please send it on.

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  12. Looks like you slipped these in under my radar, Catherine! (I’ve been mostly out of commission the past several days with a stomach bug.) You did such a great job with both of them, but I especially love the sentiment and tone of the dinghy poem—so beautifully presented too. Get thee to the padlet, Ms. Flynn!

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