The year 2020 is a dumpster fire. Let’s express it in haiku
Readers, let’s be frank
2020 is the worst
At least we hope so
Bashing 2020 is kind of a thing in 2020. And why shouldn’t it be?
The year that started out with such promise in January took a quick nose-dive: pandemic, economic crisis, racial unrest, political turmoil, wildfires, hurricanes, derecho — even murder hornets and cannibalistic rats.
It’s all too much, and there’s not much the average person can do about it.
Or is there?
Sometimes, expressing one’s feelings in writing can ease pressure and stress. And if those words come out in the form of a three-line Japanese poem with a five-seven-five syllable pattern, all the better.
To help Wichita blow off some steam, The Eagle is putting on a just-for-fun haiku contest. We last did this in 2005, when we asked readers to pen Halloween-themed haiku, and the results were frighteningly good.
Fifteen years later, we have a new contest with a new theme: 2020 and what a complete and utter dumpster fire it has been so far. Extra points if you can find anything funny in this year.
Don’t know much about haiku? It’s a form of Japanese poetry that can be pretty complicated. But we’re going for a simpler version.
The haiku we’re looking for will express a single feeling and contain three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables, respectively. The last line will contain a bit of a twist or kicker. See some examples written by Wichita Eagle staff below:
We’ll choose three winners of the contest, and each will receive a canvas print of Wichita scenery captured by Eagle photographers during years other than 2020 (a.k.a. the good old days).
All entries must be submitted by Friday, Sept. 18, and can be e-mailed to dneil@wichitaeagle.com or mailed to:
Haiku Contest
The Wichita Eagle
300 N. Mead
Wichita, KS
67202
Be sure to include on your entry your name, age and a daytime phone number. The contest is open to any age, and each person may submit up to three haiku.
Questions? E-mail dneil@wichitaeagle.com. And be sure to watch The Eagle late next month for our winners.
Here are a few examples of what we’re looking for:
Same stuff, different day
Get up. Work from home.
Eat from the fridge. Binge TV.
Bedtime. Sleep. Repeat.
So very sick of these words
Cluster, droplet, mask
Social distance, quarantine
Words this year has wrecked
I’ve had it
Honestly, what’s next?
A stay-at-home order? Please
I’m inside for good
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 10:19 AM.
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