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- 11 haikus to celebrate the end of lockdown
Haikus have a long, rich history. Once used as the opening stanza of a longer Japanese poetry form called renga, by roughly the late 19th Century they were established as an independent form, usually used to evoke a place and feeling.
Today, haikus are written around the world, in dozens of languages; they can be poignant and zen-like or, according to the translator of The Penguin Book of Haiku, "funny, crude and mischievous”. They can also be painfully British.
Each year, the haiku – typically a 17-syllable structure poem, organised across three lines of five, seven, and five – is celebrated worldwide on 17 April on International Haiku Poetry Day. To mark the occasion, we thought we'd have a go at writing some that capture life after a year of lockdown. What would yours say?
‘Best laid plans’, I think,
Striking from my to-do list,
‘Write lockdown novel’
•
Ah, sweet normalcy
The park hums with life again
Until it rains, obv
•
Do you remember
How we used to socialise?
One of us has to
•
The takeaway pint
Proffers one big takeaway:
Sitting down was nice
•
Brave the toilet queue?
Or do we travel home, and back
Duration: the same
•
Ah! My friend, from Zoom
I didn’t recognise you
Sans your glitchy voice
•
Meet you in the pub
As long as you booked it – please,
Tell me you booked it
•
What’s a holiday?
Is it sitting, with a book,
Like home, but on sand?
•
Oh, you’ve made a meme?
How clever of you to write,
‘Nature is healing’
•
What is confidence
If not a fresh new haircut
Not, thank god, self-done
•
How long now, until
We return to normal, and
I cancel some plans?
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Image: Mica Murphy / Penguin