Haiku Remix Game: A Fun Poetry Game
People love haiku. People love remixes. So, of course, it was only a matter of time before someone created the haiku remix game for poets and poetry lovers to play. Learn the rules (they’re easy) and start poeming.
People love haiku and remixes. So it was only a matter of time before someone created the Haiku Remix Game for poets and poetry lovers to play. Learn the rules and start poeming.
Recently, I posted about nonce forms (one-off forms that are more for the poet's benefit than as a full blown traditional form used by multiple poets). Earlier this week, I accidentally stumbled upon a fun poetry game that I'm calling the Haiku Remix Game. Boom!
Haiku Remix Game: The Rules
The rules of the Haiku Remix Game are pretty simple:
- Pick a poem (any poem)
- Condense it into the 5/7/5 syllable structure of haiku
- That's it! You win! Game over!
Here are a few examples:
Let us go then, when
women come and go talking—
Michelangelo!
-source: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," by T.S. Eliot
I celebrate and
sing and contradict myself—
my barbaric yawp!
-source: "Song of Myself," by Walt Whitman
Because I could not,
Death stopped for me—feels shorter
than eternity
-source: "Because I could not stop for Death," by Emily Dickinson
a possessed witch fixed
the suppers for worms and elves—
not ashamed to die
-source: "Her Kind," by Anne Sexton
I have eaten plums
you were probably saving—
they were delicious
-source: "This Is Just to Say," by William Carlos Williams
Part haiku, part erasure; I've found the Haiku Remix Game is super fun and addictive. Go ahead. Try it out. Then, try to stop, because you'll find it's too fun to quit.
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Note for haiku purists: I realize that 5-7-5 does not a haiku make. Real haiku are less concerned with 5-7-5 (or even 3 lines) and more interested in seasonal and cutting words. But this is just a game; it's just for fun. Poeming is fun!
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Recreate Your Poetry!
Revision doesn’t have to be a chore—something that has to be done after the joy of the first draft. In fact, revision should be viewed as an enjoyable extension of the creation process—something that you want to experience after the joy of the first draft.
Learn the three rules of revision, seven revision filters, common excuses for avoiding revision (and how to overcome them), and more in this power-packed poetry revision tutorial.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
