Poetry Everywhere: Haiku-pons

It's exciting to see the poetic aesthetic bleed into the "regular" world in a formal way that makes it more easily accessible to everyone, especially those who might not otherwise take the opportunity to engage in poetry reading, writing or sharing.

In yesterday's mail, we received what on the surface appeared to be just another snail-mailing of coupons from mega-store Target. A closer reading revealed that in addition to discounts, this mailing also included a twist on the popular poetic form, haiku. As you can see from the cover to the right, Target invites the consumer, in small print at the bottom to "Stock up with poetic saving inside." This is my introduction into the nascent realm of "haiku-pons."

Inside, in addition to there are traditional coupons at a rate of three per page with perforations between each for removal. On the back of each coupon in a single line that, along with the other lines on the original page, create a haiku (of sorts) about that product. Each time you remove a coupon, a new line is revealed, creating the opportunity for the creation of a whole new haiku, albeit ones that make slightly (and increasingly) less sense.

While I whole-heartedly applaud Target's infusion of poetry into their advertising (and it is a smart strategy to use the single form that most folks have been taught since kindergarten), my only caveat to this praise is that the advertising unfortunately reinforces a common perception about what makes a (western) haiku, that simply putting words down in a 5-7-5 syllabic form is all that is necessary to write a haiku. I am reminded of a student of mine who, when discussing the writing of poetry, deemed this particular form "easy" simply because he is adept at spitting out loosely related lines with a proper syllable count, an exercises the haiku-pons do very neatly. As in anything that seems simple, it is not always just that easy to do... or to do well.

Keep your own eyes on the mail for your handy-dandy haiku-pon book, and have some fun mixing and matching!