Poemic Inquiry -- Launching a poemicstrip project

 

With pszren's permission, I've added a toggle over to the left for "Poemic Inquiries."  In planning for the future of this blog, we discussed the idea of particular memes or questions we might investigate as an on-line community of poets/artists.  These are in no way meant to limit your creative freedom.  Rather, for a set period of time (a month?  two weeks?  a week?) this is a question we might consider together and offer either comments or poemic work in response.

Process:  If you are a contributor to the blog, feel free to post work or commentary in response to the question; please note in your post (or preferably, post title) that it is in response to the current Poemic Inquiry.  If you are not a contributor, feel free to post comments here and, if you like, a link to a site (blog, Flickr, etc.) where we can see your work in response to this question.  And if you would like to join the list of contributors, just ask.  At the end of the time period for this Inquiry, I will post the links to any off-site work in response to the question.  For this first test drive of the Inquiry, I am planning to make the compilation post of links and contributions by February 1.

Types of Inquiries:  I see these questions as being anything productive that gets the creative ball rolling.  They may skew more to the poetry side of poemics, to the comics side, or land somewhere in the hybrid middle.  If you have questions you would like us to consider in the future, either post them in the comments section here or email them to me here. 

The Current Inquiry:  I thought I would start us off with a question about comparative form.  What is a Poemic Haiku?  I've submitted work before that plays around with the formal structure of a haiku here.  I also think Márton Koppány's recent post, "Still," is very like a haiku. Haiku are most popularly known for their 5-7-5 syllabic meter, although that is not necessarily their most important feature.  They are elegantly simple, short, abstract, often focused on the tension of opposites, often nature themed, and often rely on a playful sense of image.  In short, they relate well to many of the issues we deal with in poemics.  There are lots of web sites about haiku, but this Wikipedia entry is a good place to start refreshing your memory about them.