Next Up: Soji

While Twitter is often lampooned as empty chatter, I’m finding it an increasingly rich source of news and information. (Just look at what it has done in terms of revealing the aftermath of Iran’s election.)

Lately, I’ve been using Twitter to post a daily lune (like haiku, but shorter; see this poetic forms post for more info) and am finding a growing community of good online poets, as a result. Today a post from wx1gdave led to a Boston Globe article about soji, a Korean form something like haiku, but longer, and with perhaps a stronger twist. Here’s a a 14th-century sijo mentioned in that article:

The spring breeze melted snow on the hills then quickly disappeared.
I wish I could borrow it briefly to blow over my hair
And melt away the aging frost forming now about my ears.

Isn’t that awesome?

Looks like it’s time to do some further research into this form and try my hand at some soji of my own.

Not that I’m abandoning the daily lune or haiku; soji are too long to Tweet.