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Constance Bourg

Poetry and Flash Fiction

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Childhood Haiku

Posted on January 24, 2019May 25, 2019 by constancebourg

This month’s Haiku Pea podcast is a special on the theme of childhood. I had sent in a few haiku, and two were chosen to be read during the episode.

You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript here.

Posted in Haiku, News, PoetryTagged childhood, family, Haiku, podcast, poem, Poetry

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@hairytoadlily dogku 😁

Yesterday morning I was wakened by a thunderstorm. I always feel calm and clearheaded during a thunderstorm. Apparently it has something to do with negative ions in the atmosphere :) . Back when I used to live in the centre of Bruges, I was often wakened by the sound of heavy suitcases on plastic wheels being dragged over the cobblestones outside. I lived right next to a hotel! . Bruges has become unliveable for the locals because of mass tourism. The major recently called a halt to all advertising of the city to people abroad. . . Feel free to repost, but please tag @constancebourgpoetry . . . . . #poetry #senryu #haiku #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #poetsandwriters #writerscommunity #writersofinstagram #wordporn #wisewords #spilledthoughts #mindfulness #inspiration #wisdom #funny #humanity #instagood #womenwhowrite #womenwhowritepoetry #constancebourg

I'm working on some ocean themed haiku and senryu for The Cicada's Cry :) . I come from a family of fishermen and the sea is in your blood, they always say. Having grown up by the sea, I start to feel claustrophobic whenever I'm away from the coast for a longer time. When I return to the sea, I can sense it near. It always elevates my spirit. I guess it's true: I have the sea in my blood and salt in my bones. . . Feel free to repost, but please tag @constancebourgpoetry . . . . . #poetry #senryu #haiku #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #poetsandwriters #writerscommunity #writersofinstagram #wordporn #wisewords #spilledthoughts #mindfulness #inspiration #wisdom #funny #humanity #instagood #womenwhowrite #womenwhowritepoetry #constancebourg

Three generations :) Don't miss my story on strong women this weekend 💗💪🏻

I invented the cenku as a poetry exercise. I was taking part in a poetry course earlier this year, where we were prompted to write a two-line cento: we were asked to take two lines from two different poems and to combine them so that the images worked together to form a new mini poem. I used a line from Sylvia Plath's 'The Colussus' and another from Pascale Petit's 'Black Jaguar with Quai Saint-Bernard' and wrote: . Mouthpiece of the dead, or of some god or other, in the voicebox of night, I might hear. . That was my cento. What I liked about this exercise was learning how imagery works in poetry. Another favourite poetry exercise of mine is to write haiky/senryu because it's essentially the same thing. You're combining two images by comparing them (as in a simile) or contrasting them or zooming in or out or making one part of the other. There are so many different ways of creating haiku with images, so it makes a really good exercise. . Then I thought: why not create haiku from two images from existing poems? And that is how the cenku was born :) . I encourage you to write your own and post them using #cenku and tag me in the post @constancebourgpoetry because I would love to read them and look up the original poems!! . I will be posting links to the poems I have used in my linktree from now on - see #linkinbio - so you can read them and enjoy them as much as I do :) . This cenku was made from the images "my body / was an outline" which is from 'First Map' by KC Trommer and "cold blue thumbtacks" from 'The Circle Game' by Margaret Atwood. In both poems the poets write about their body as being a map. . For those of you who love spoken word/poetry slam type poetry I will also include a link to Melanie Mununggurr-Williams' 'I Run' which I used in the previous cenku. Watch the YouTube video! I dare you not to be moved to tears!! And let me know what you think of all this in the comments below :) . . What's a cenku ?? cento + haiku . Cento: a poem made by combining lines from different existing poems. Haiku: a short poem containing two images that have a relationship. . . . . . #cenku #poetry #haiku #cento #writersofinstagram #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram

My first haiku GIF!! I'm learning how to make GIFs with GIMP. Something went wrong with the quality of the image in all the conversion steps, but the original photo is by Thomas Willmott @unsplash :) . I will be making more of these and adding them to GIPHY over time. I'll add the link to my GIPHY page to my linktree (in bio) so you can find them easily and share with your friends. . . . . . #poetry #senryu #haiku #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #poetsandwriters #writerscommunity #writersofinstagram #wordporn #wisewords #spilledthoughts #inspiration #wisdom #funny #humanity #womenwhowrite #constancebourg

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