Tag Archives: Suburban Haiku

Guest Post: Peyton Price of Suburban Haiku (feat. a book giveaway!)

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suburban haiku book, haiku, poetryToday, as National Poetry Month draws to a close, there’s a special treat in store for you.

Peyton Price, poet/author of the new Suburban Haiku: Poetic Dispatches from Behind the Picket Fence has delivered a few fresh haiku, as well as your chance to win some POETRY SWAG.

A resident of suburban Maryland, Peyton’s been capturing the essence of the ‘burbs in haiku form (three lines that employ a total of 17 syllables, broken into phrases of 5-7-5) for quite some time now, and she’s elevated it to high — and hilarious — art. Some of my faves from her book:

I keep a close eye
on the hummingbird feeder.
Yep. It’s still putrid.

For tonight’s potluck
please mark what is Gluten-Free
so I don’t eat it.

Dare I say something?
I think her carpool “conflict”
is hating carpool.

Now that you’re all warmed up, let’s get to the giveaway. We’re challenging you to create a mashup of a movie critique and a haiku: a haiku review.

Get inspired by the following examples from Peyton and yours truly, then visit the comments section below to post your own movie review in haiku form (three lines: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables). Enter as often as you like in the next week. Contest ends May 7, 2014. All entries will go into a pool and one randomly drawn poet-winner will get their very own copy of Peyton’s adorable-but-subversive little book.

From Peyton:

DIVERGENT
Like Hunger Games, yes
but with sexual yearning.
(What? That guy is hot!)

MUPPET MOVIE
The audience laughed!
In fact, there was some shushing
from embarrassed kids.

From me:

SPIDERMAN
Tobey’s got talent —
Nimble in Spandex; good at
upside-down kissing.

Have fun — and thanks for playing!

 

 

Find more to chuckle about on The Well-Versed Mom’s Facebook page.

(And don’t forget to “like” me, okay? It’s good and good for you.)

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Suburban Haiku: Thanksgiving (a guest post)

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©2013 CEStankiewicz all rights reserved

(Today’s post, like last week’s, was prompted by my recent Japan trip. I asked Peyton Price, the genius behind Suburban Haiku, to share some of her witty work in the familiar Japanese poetic form.  She graciously obliged, using the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday as her theme. I’m very thankful.)

I love haiku—little poems with seventeen syllables in three lines: five syllables, seven, then five.

The simplicity of haiku leaves space for readers to fill in personal details, seeing their own lives in the space between those three lines. I’m writing about my neighborhood, but you’ll want to know whether I’m spying on yours. (Answer: No comment.)

And it’s so satisfying, really, to boil life’s absurdities down to seventeen syllables. Being a mom is so complicated, and somehow so mind-numbingly boring. The holidays are a perfect example. Are you feeling the pressure yet? Wouldn’t you rather laugh than cry? A tiny haiku can be sweet revenge . . . or just sweet.

SUBURBAN HAIKU: THANKSGIVING

Preschool Thanksgiving:
Moms and dads in tiny chairs
ask “Did you make this?”

The teens volunteer
at the neighborhood food bank
for their rèsumès.

My kids cannot wait
to wake up on Thanksgiving
and see all the ads.

Thanksgiving parade:
A Pilgrim in white stockings
and white Adidas.

Once our guests arrive
I start out with a simmer.
Then I stir things up.

Every November
he sits there stuffing his face
with all our birdseed.

Weekend visitors
finally head off to bed.
Even the cat purrs.

 

Peyton Price lives in suburbia (of course) with her long-commuting husband (of course) and two above-average children (of course). You can find Suburban Haiku on twitter, facebook, the blog, and Amazon (of course).

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The Well-Versed Mom & Tom.

Happy Thanksgiving from The Well-Versed Mom & Tom.