Introducing haiQu

Since writing this Introduction to haiQu, I have begun to accept submissions from readers. Before submitting, please read this page, as well as How to Write haiQu.

I’ve created a haiku form I’m dubbing haiQu. The Q comes from the surrealist practice known as Cadavre Exquis (Exquisite Corpse.) Why only the Q? I played around with other names such as Haicadavre or XQuizit Haiku and a few others, but opted for haiQu in a nod to the elegant simplicity of haiku.

dyspraxia brain
the nipple of what’s easy
sweet monkey jesus

Long before surrealists created the Exquisite Corpse method of collaborative drawing, the writing of haiku began as a collaborative practice known as Renga. The first stanza in this collaboratively created series of short linked poems was called a hokku. The hokku was eventually extracted and morphed into what is now known as haiku. This is a microscopically stunted summary, but it suffices for our purpose here.

haiQu began as a solo project, primarily using appropriation (theft, if you prefer). In its infancy, I called it Twitter Haiku. But after the hostile takeover of Twitter by a narcissist, fascist-wannabe man-baby, I abandoned the nazi birdsite for Mastodon, where I continue the practice.

paramecium saints
embrace of boomer metal
gaslight trend

I briefly considered calling it Mastodon Haiku, but that’s one syllable too many. Other rejected names include Mastoku, Haitoot, and Haiku Flarf. In fact, it was just a few minutes ago, as I was beginning to write this, that I settled on haiQu.

I’ve been saying I choose three random lines, but that’s not accurate. It’s more like curation than random sampling. I choose each phrase due to some specific quality it has and I spend a lot of time matching phrases to each other. So, no, not random at all.

What’s to come of it? Maybe nothing. But I’m going to continue to write haiQu, and maybe refine it. I’d love to see other people take up the practice. A logical next step would be to create haiQu collaboratively, with each contributor drawing from their own obscure lists.

To illustrate how this works, here are some collected phrases taken from the paragraphs above.

• the nazi birdsite
• fascist-wannabe man-baby
• microscopically stunted
• extracted and morphed
• surrealistic micro-poem