Tuesday, 3-24-2015 (PowerPoint animation and haiku)

Hello! Are you ready for some high-tech poetry? It can be fun to take a short poem, or just a sentence or group of words, and use "animation" in PowerPoint to make the words grow or move around or change in other ways. I will show you how to do this at about six o'clock.

Until then, maybe you would enjoy reading some short poems from Japan. These are a kind of poem called a haiku. A haiku has three lines. The first line has five syllables. The second line has seven syllables. And the third line has five syllables. Which of these poems do you like the best? Ask a partner.

1

An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

- Bashō

2

Clouds appear

and bring to men a chance to rest

from looking at the moon.

- Bashō

3

Temple bells die out.

The fragrant blossoms remain.

A perfect evening!

- Bashō

4

Over the wintry

forest, winds howl in rage

with no leaves to blow.

- Soseki

5

I kill an ant

and realize my three children

have been watching.

- Kato Shuson