Once again, I asked my Spring Break mini-term students to choose a painting and write a haiku inspired by their chosen work of art. This year it worked a little differently, because our class was cancelled as a precaution against the COVID-19 virus. The students made their choices from online museums and submitted their haiku through the Blackboard learning management system. I hope you’ll enjoy these creative poetical interpretations of visual art.
George Catlin, Buffalo Chase, A Single Death, 1833
Hunter, by Rogers Cecchini
Must hunt to survive.
Pursuit of the buffalo,
All in a day’s work.
Jacob Maris, Girl Feeding a Bird in a Cage, 1867
Gray, by Taylor Ellington
Disheartened by gloom;
Life abounds in the small things
Though the world is gray.
Mariano Fortuny y Carbó, Arab Chief, 1874
Defeated, by Chris Martin
Alive without life,
I wrap myself with this fear.
Yet I shall still live.
Dai Jin, Returning Late from a Spring Outing, c. 1450-60
Tranquility, by Jonathan Reina
The mist conceals them;
Mountains shelter them from harm.
Rivers nourish them.
Claude Monet, Bathers at La Grenouillère, 1869
Boats, by Andrew Lauer
Boats rest in water.
People walk; stop to ponder
Spring won’t last for long.
