Year 7 Poetry -Haiku challenge

By Jon Scampton (Learning Assistant)

The Year 7s have been studying poetry this semester with each student creating a portfolio of their work.  This will culminate in a ‘Passion Poem’ allowing students to express, in their choice of poetic style, something they feel passionate about.

As we each journey the lockdown road, it doesn’t have to mean isolation.  Taking a few moments to put on a cuppa, put your feet up, then reflect and record your thoughts - your story - can be individually therapeutic and has the potential to create a sense of shared experience, i.e. community, when passed on to others.

To this end, we are looking for poetic contributions from the school community in the form of haikus.  These are simple, yet often quite profound, little three-line poems which take the form: five syllables - seven syllables - five syllables. The aim of this is to give us all an insight into your feelings of our current unusual conditions. Some rather tongue-in-cheek examples follow (some have been adapted to reflect current circumstances, but are otherwise not my own).

If you would like to contribute, please email: newsletter@bhcs.vic.edu.au

Thank you and happy haiku-ing! 

In light of the current stressful conditions and increased screen time, there is a move to replace the usual impersonal and cryptic computer error messages with Japanese haiku poetry.  Here are some examples: 

A file that big?

It might be very useful

But now it is gone.

Seek your Zoom meeting

You cannot be connected 

Countless more exist.

Aborted effort

Close all that you have worked on

You ask way too much.

Yesterday it worked 

Today it is not working 

Windows is like that.

First snow, then silence 

This thousand dollar screen dies 

So beautifully.

With searching comes loss 

The presence of absence 

"Reports.doc" not found.

The Tao that is seen 

Is not the true Tao 

Until you bring fresh toner.

Windows 10 has crashed 

The Blue Screen of Death 

No one hears your screams.

Stay the patient course 

Of little worth is your ire 

The network is down.

A crash reduces 

Your expensive computer 

To a simple stone.

Three things are certain 

Death, taxes, and lost wi-fi 

Guess which has occurred.

You step in the stream 

But the water has moved on 

Page not found.

Out of memory 

We wish to hold the whole sky

But we never will.

Having been erased

The documents you are seeking 

Must now be retyped.

Serious error 

All shortcuts have disappeared 

Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

To have no errors 

Would be life without meaning 

No struggle, no joy

Chaos reigns within 

Stop, reflect, and reboot 

Order shall return.