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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.