Below are the worku, but before reading consider how we use constraints.
Many poems leaned on CRUEL as a label:
These tell us what to feel, but not what to see.. The strongest of today’s entries made cruelty physical:
– exhaustion after a double shift
– power imbalance between bodies
– rot, flies, and consequence
Haiku blooms when the word disappears:
– The image delivers the judgment
– The abstract word just seals it
If you remove CRUEL and the poem still hurts, your haiku is blooming.
When you see a word like cruel, sad, lonely, angry ask: what does this look like in the body or the world?
Let the scene accuse, not the adjective. That’s where haiku stops reporting and starts blooming.
Starr 3/6
IRATE and a WRECK
Double shift ahead for me
That is just so CRUEL
Debbie Wilson 2/6
Delicious donut
My belly begins to BLOAT
CRUEL twist of fate
Diana Marie 3/6
SUGAR, I need you
BRUTE! You lift me up high, then
Laugh CRUEL as I cry
Mark 4/6
Vacant STARE, BORED eyes
Humanity flees the RULER
“CRUEL is my game”
auntie jj 2/6
his CLOUT had run dry
the long game didn’t pan out
a CRUEL world it was
Mick 3/6
The silent ROGUE croaked
Flies ERUPT from the dung heap —
CRUEL toad nabbed Jim!