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Monday 2 November Game Night!

Worku Game Night — Monday, November 2! Join us for another evening of words, poetry, laughter, and a little creative head-scratching! ...
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November 2, 2026 / weblog
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Worku: Beyond 5–7–5?

A little experiment in the art of haiku ...
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October 27, 2026 / weblog
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Game Night 3: More Experience Than Game

Four players, 45 poems, and a whole lot of finger-snapping applause! Our third Worku Game Night at the Crooked Goat in Petaluma was a fun and remarkably productive evening ...
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October 22, 2026 / weblog
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Four Players, 44 Poems, and Tater Tots!

Fun night! Four players, 44 poems, tater tots, and about 2 hours of head scratching, game fiddling, and appreciation among friends ❤️ ...
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October 17, 2026 / weblog
weblogWorku Retrospectives

Worku Retrospectives – Debbie Wilson

One pleasure of revisiting Worku’s first year is seeing the shape of a poet’s work emerge across hundreds of small poems. I really enjoy Debbie Wilson’s poetry ...
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October 13, 2026 / weblog, Worku Retrospectives
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Oops

Hi friends - this moring in my worku haze, I mistakenly posted an image on Instagram and Facebook that revealked today's wordle answer. Very sorry about that. I, being old and excitable, had set it up to go later today and did not realize it was live ...
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October 12, 2026 / weblog
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Ambiguity

One of the things I like most about short-form poetry is how much work can happen in what isn’t said ...
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October 8, 2026 / weblog
weblogWorku Retrospectives

Worku Retrospectives – Mark

Over time, Worku becomes more than a collection of daily poems. Each writer leaves behind a body of work: recurring images, humor, tenderness, surprises, and distinctive ways of handling constraint ...
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October 7, 2026 / weblog, Worku Retrospectives
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Zappai Mode!

One of the things I’m noticing more and more with Worku is that zappai may be the form the game produces most naturally ...
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October 7, 2026 / weblog
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Guerrilla Worku!

Another Worku Game Night at Crooked Goat—this time with Robo, beers, pizza, four rounds of poems, and the beginnings of Guerrilla Worku ...
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October 4, 2026 / weblog
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Game Night Is a Thing!

I finally got over my jitters, hesitation, and general nervousness about taking the Worku game out into the wild and brought it to Crooked Goat, my local watering hole here in Petaluma ...
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October 4, 2026 / weblog
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When the constraint comes before the meaning

One of the interesting things about Worku is what happens when a constraint arrives before meaning does ...
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October 2, 2026 / weblog
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Maybe you’d like to host a game night?

Hey there! Below is an image you can use to invite some friends over for a Worku test game night. The best group size for playing is 3–6 people. You don't need to know anything about the game ahead of time—we're testing it! Play, write some Worku, have some fun, ...
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September 28, 2026 / weblog
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Final theme: reflection

You don't have to write “Reflection.” Let something be reconsidered, mirrored, or seen again.  Ok, this project has been testing an element of a Worku board game. I'm not quite ready to reveal but have been testing and some of you have been part of that and thanks very much! ...
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September 28, 2026 / weblog
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Update to navigation

I've tried to make the navigation easier by separating pages and having all available in the upper navigation bar. Lemme know if you see anything wierd ...
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September 26, 2026 / weblog
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Solo Renga anyone?

We’ve been having fun with Linked Worku — taking the day’s constraint words and writing a series of 5–7–5 poems, with one constraint word in each poem (check out auntie jj's six part epic from 26 September!). That got me reading about Japanese linked poetry.Traditionally, renga and later renku were ...
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September 26, 2026 / weblog
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Wordle in 6! Now What Do I Do?

You know the feeling. Wordle in six. Yay, but for the worki this is a challenge. Now you have six constraint words to squeeze into one little 5–7–5 Worku. I always suffer when that happens. Then I thought: Wait. What if I don't put them all in one poem? Introducing ...
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September 23, 2026 / weblog
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This week’s theme: presence

Notice what is here, right now—a person, an object, a sensation, a creature, a moment. Don't use the word presence. Put us there ...
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September 21, 2026 / weblog
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This week’s theme: movement

This week we add movement. Bodies. Water. Wind. Travel. Leaving. Arriving. Falling. Rising. Staying still while everything else moves ...
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September 14, 2026 / weblog
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Worku is 1

9 September 2025 the first worku was played ...
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September 12, 2026 / weblog
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This week’s theme: season

Evoke a season, weather, or change in the natural world. You don't have to write “season.” Put us inside one ...
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September 7, 2026 / weblog
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Something new for Worku: Theme of the Week

Something new for Worku: Theme of the Week For the next few weeks, we're going to try a little experiment ...
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August 24, 2026 / weblog
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How the AI Scores Worku Poems

The AI scoring rubric is not meant to declare which poem is “best.” It is a way to look at each Worku from several angles and ask a simple question: how well did the poem turn a set of required words into an actual haiku? Each poem is scored out ...
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August 16, 2026 / weblog
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The Worku Archive Project

As worku approaches its first anniversary (23 September 2026!), I’ve begun going back through every poem from the past year, month by month. I’m looking at more than statistics. I want to understand how the form has developed, which poems and experiments have helped define it, how individual worki have ...
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July 24, 2026 / weblog
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One Puzzle, Many Poems: Introducing Freestyle Worku

One Puzzle, Many Poems: Introducing Freestyle Worku ...
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June 24, 2026 / weblog


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recent posts

  • 5 November
  • 4 November
  • 3 November
  • 2 November
  • 1 November

links

  • wordle archive
  • mywordle - make a wordle to share
  • wikipedia - haiku
  • read poetry - 10 haikus
  • grammarly - how to write haiku

archives

  • November 2026
  • October 2026
  • September 2026
  • August 2026
  • July 2026
  • June 2026
  • May 2026
  • April 2026
  • March 2026
  • February 2026
  • January 2026
  • December 2025
  • November 2025
  • October 2025
  • September 2025

what it is

  • worku is a daily practice where your wordle guesses become a haiku
  • use your guesses in the same order you played them
  • aim for imagery and flavor over perfect grammar
  • add a touch of nature, humor, or irony

“Worku is good for saying what you are thinking, which is why I have so many about cheese. Nice finding a place.” — Mark

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