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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Haiku - Design

As I read it, there were two choices given for this week's haiku at one deep breath - either to write a haiku on the topic of design, or to write a "Fib" - a short poem based on the Fibonacci sequence, with six lines of syllable count 1/1/2/3/5/8

I decided to attempt the first. The team at one deep breath commented that they couldn't find many haiku on the theme of design. I soon found out why. I wanted to take photos of the shapes found in nature and show how they repeat in many forms eg the starfish which is the same shape as a five-petalled flower or the inside of an apple. The problem is that a haiku is such a compact form and there is really only room to portray a thing as it is, without introducing any abstract ideas of how its form reflects this or that.

Here is what I finally came up with. I don't usually do precise syllable counts (not a requirement in Western haiku these days) but this one was looking close enough to 5-7-5 to encourage me to make it exactly that.



on my windowsill
Fibonacci cactus thorns
- spiral galaxy

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Ooh - I like that quite a lot!
The picture shows the spiral very well.

Jennifer S. said...

very cool, interesting photo too!

Kim said...

This is a wonderful Haiku and I like the photo too. Awesome work!

Tammy Brierly said...

Perfect photo for natures design and I loved your haiku :)

Deb R said...

Oh cool! Y'know when that photo first started loading, I thought I was seeing a dandelion at puffball stage. Tricksy photo! I like the photo and the haiku.

writingblind said...

'spiral galaxy'

What a lovely image and a great photo.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Lovely haiku - I'm always fascinated by the spiral patterns in plants. Your cactus looks quite like the one we've got here!

paris parfait said...

Great photo and clever poem - terrific combination! Well done.