PACE Global Haiku • PACE September 2009
Dr. Randy Brooks

Haiku Party Box

by
Charlotte Ryan

To demonstrate my haiku collection, I attempted to create a game around haiku.

Learning the art of haiku poetics has been one of the most interesting subjects I have experienced. The haiku reading and writing environment is very fluid and inviting. It opened up a side to poetry that I never knew existed; the side of active participation by the reader. I see this form of poetics as — a reader will get out of haiku what they put into it. Should the reader choose to open up and explore the imagery provided by the haiku author, they may make connections and create a scene or story in their own mind that has never been experienced before. This type of creativity really showcases the inner characteristics of haiku as constantly changing with each new member. The experiences and visions a new haiku reader and poet bring to the culture can be felt by anyone who reads their poems or listens to response writings of the images from the reader’s haiku adventure.

Haiku Party Box Instructions

The Haiku party host or hostess creates two host boxes with a different haiku poem on each face of the box. This will result in 12 haikus authored by the host (my haiku collection in this case). An individual smaller haiku party box is made for each guest, contains one of the host’s haiku on the box, and is distributed to each guest upon their arrival. During the course of the evening the guests participate in writing haiku about specific topics, or a free writing topic. At the end of the evening, the guests put all of the haiku into a box with each guest drawing out a haiku until the box is empty. Everyone is now prepared for the haiku pairing event.

Both host boxes are “rolled” like dice. The two haiku poems that come out on top are matched up with the guests who have that haiku on their individual haiku party box. Each participant reads out loud one of the haiku they selected from the box that contained all of the party attendee’s haiku, everyone discusses the haikus and share their images and responses, vote on which one advances, and continue the cycle again until a final champion is selected.

joy-ride with the top down
fun-filled breeze blows us—
to a destination unknown

beneath glassy water
gliding whales
pass the time

off the beaten path
late summer breeze
the lingering stench of livestock

grandmother’s cuckoo clock
hangs
in silence

Sandcastle on the beach
floating out to sea
summer night washes in…

footprints in the sand
beach peddler weaving a prize
hat for the young grasshopper

under the covers
we flip through the channels
night falls again