Thursday, April 17, 2014

OULIPOST #17: HAIKUISATION

The prompt:

The haiku is a Japanese poetic form whose most obvious feature is the division of its 17 syllables into lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Haikuisation has sometimes been used by Oulipians to indicate the reduction of verses of normal length to lines of haiku-like brevity. Select three sentences from a single newspaper article and “haiku” them.

The process:

My process wasn't really a process at all. I pulled 3 random sentences from an article and tried to make it different from the article. I played with tenses and pluralizations. Was I successful?? Not too sure. Did I have fun? Sure did. Did I try to make it different from the text? Yes! 

The result:

Unsettling

Between 2:30
The victim, he backfires
Success, no-man’s land

4:30: emails
His man: deception, no facts
M(o)ore words arrive in

Night preaches balance
Boss owns all importance 
Late night life, has been

One mo(o)re victim in
Expect facts around-the-clock
Sent: Man has not lived.

Source:
Teitell, Beth. "Bosses' late-hour emailing sends an unsettling message." The Boston Globe.  17 Apr 2014. A1-A12. Print.

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