HUMANITIES TO THE RESCUE PRESENTS: Haiku in the Time of Coronavirus
March 23, 2020
#ubhaikuproject
CALL FOR HAIKUS AND PHOTOGRAPHS FROM OUR CAMPUS AND WESTERN NEW YORK COMMUNITIES
Throughout history, a central function of art has been to bear witness in times of calamity, anxiety, and grief. From the Book of Job to Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year (1722), Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (1826), Anne Frank’s diaries (1942-44), Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone (2007) and countless other works, human beings invest life and death with meaning through creative expression. In Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy (2003-2013), she envisions the consequences of a plague that wipes out most of humanity, and reminds us that the catastrophe we experience is not the first catastrophe humans have lived through—“that the past has been ruptured . . . violently . . . irreparably” many times before.
Our world may change irrevocably. But life will carry on.
Now more than ever, artistic expression is the resource to which we can all turn to help us to better understand our extraordinary moment of crisis. We encourage you to now take some time to give artistic expression to your life, to your individual way of processing this unexpected new world we are suddenly sharing, and to offer us a window into your personal landscapes. The voice of humanity is a voice that speaks in hope of an audience—a call that awaits a response in an essential duet. Through expressing our hopes, anxieties, terrors, triumphs, and grief during this time of duress, we can connect this viral era (may it be brief) to the vast fabric of history. We can let our art join us together.
To this end, the UB Humanities Institute invites anyone reading this announcement to submit haikus and photos that capture your experiences, observations, and feelings during this extraordinary time and post them to Instagram with the hashtag #ubhaikuproject. There, you can also read the poems and view the images that shape the shared experiences of our Buffalo community.
As an opportunity specifically for University at Buffalo students, faculty, and staff, as well as area high school students, the UB Humanities Institute is accepting submissions of haikus for a future publication of a bound volume of selected works, determined by an ad hoc committee. Additional details forthcoming as we work to refine this vision, but after posting your work on Instagram at #ubhaikuproject, we encourage UB and area high school participants to then also complete the online submission form below to have your work considered for the published volume: https://airtable.com/shrVu2eixagNh4DuW
The purpose of this volume is to document this extraordinary moment in our collective experience.
We look forward to reading your work!
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How to Write a Haiku:
A haiku is a traditional Japanese form of constraint-based poetry. Each poem has 17 syllables presented in three lines.
The first line has 5 syllables.
The second line has 7 syllables.
The third line has 5 syllables.
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Consider these poems by haiku master Matsuo Basho:
Sick on my journey,
only my dreams will wander
these desolate moors
or
From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon-beholders.
You can read additional haiku examples, and learn more about the haiku form, here:
http://woto.com/examples-of-haiku-about-nature
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms?query=haiku
Remember:
- Post your haiku and photos at #ubhaikuproject.
- UB and area high school participants may then also go to https://airtable.com/shrVu2eixagNh4DuW to have your work considered for the future bound volume.
Nota Bene
If you wish to try a different form of writing—sonnet, sestina, villanelle, free verse poetry or even flash fiction (i.e. 500 words)—your work is welcome at the #ubhaikuproject. While we are primarily focusing on the haiku form, we encourage our Buffalo community to find a form of expression that suits YOU in these extraordinary times.
