The Orange County Museum of Art commissioned Los Angeles artist Alan Nakagawa to do a project he called “Social Distancing, Haiku, and You,” in which he invited the public to write haikus about the experience of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Lockdown Haikus”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. Not long ago, the Orange County Museum of Art commissioned the Los Angeles
Artist Alan Nakagawa to do a project about social distancing. So he invited people to write and
Record their own haikus about their experiences during lockdown. The result was an online audio
Collage that he called Social Distancing Haiku and You. And it’s online at his website,
Ellennakagawa.com. And Grant, these are really good. You know, the five, seven, five-syllable
Format of haiku really lends itself to this moment somehow. I wanted to share some of these with you.
Yes, please.
Some of them are just beautiful, like this one from Mark Romanek.
No traffic, no planes.
Distant laughter drifts over the canyon.
Only birdsong now.
That’s really evocative, right?
Yeah, and that’s what it was.
I live next to freeways, and it was astonishing how little traffic there was at the start of the lockdown and quarantine.
It was eerie.
Here’s another one.
Sunshine warms the ground.
Trees dance outside my window.
I dance by myself.
Oh, that’s a little sad.
I know.
I know.
It’s sort of beautiful and poignant all at the same time.
That’s by Ann Tracy.
And then this one, I’m sure lots of people will appreciate.
This one’s by Leslie Rose.
The space between us in the grocery aisles, every face masked.
You know, it reminds me of petals on a wet black bow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because the socialness of shopping where you’re talking about produce or running to somebody that you know is hindered or muted by the masks in the distance.
Yeah.
Some of these really pack a punch.
Here’s one by Veronica Hosking.
Festive ambiance.
She does not reveal her wish.
Quarantine birthday.
I just feel like these are little Zoom windows on people’s lives, you know?
Yeah, we’ve all had this experience now.
What else have we all shared in recent decades so much as this?
Yes, yes.
In a society where media is fractured and lives are increasingly complex,
This is one thing that we’re all undergoing.
We haven’t done this as a society in a very long time where we’ve all had one experience.
That’s really interesting.
Yeah, it’s something that everybody can instantly relate to, I think.
Here’s one more I’ll share with you that I think you’ll appreciate.
Yellow bananas grow black spots like cheetah fur.
Time to bake some bread.
It’s true in my house, absolutely.
How much banana bread have I eaten?
And regular bread and muffins and cakes and cookies.
Yeah, that one was by Sandra Payne.
But I just love the quality of the haikus that came in.
Oh, people are fantastic, aren’t they?
Yeah, I’ll share some more of those later in the show.
And you’ll share the link to the website, right?
Right, alannakagawa.com.
If you’d like to share a haiku with us about anything that you’ve been experiencing, please do, and we’ll perhaps share it on the air, 877-929-9673.
Email words@waywordradio.org or share it on Twitter @wayword.
