By: Manuela Menezes, Felipe Resende, Pedro Braña, Julie Smith, Maria Luiza Doyle and João Velasque

Haiku is a genre of traditional Japanese poetry characterized by a poem of 17 syllables, or phonetic units (called “on”, in japanese), divided into three verses of 5, 7, and 5, respectively. The traditional form presents two contrasting images or ideas, generally one symbolizing time and the other suggesting an observation. In between both ideas, there is a cutting word (“kireji”), which highlights the way in which both elements are related. Modern haikus are less and less clinging to the 17-syllable format, but it remains present in several works of international literature, such as “It”, by Stephen King. With its origins in the hokkus (opening stanza of an orthodox collaborative poem) of the 17th century, with Matsuo Bashō, haiku began to appear in the West in the mid-18th century, with the Dutch Hendrik Doeff, and in Brazil in the early 20th century, with Afrânio Peixoto.

Stephen King’s book “It” follows the experiences of several characters in an interval of almost 30 years, between the two waves of attacks by the clown Pennywise, an entity that terrorizes the city of Derry. To represent some of the main characters of the plot, here are some haikus about each one of them:

Manuela Menezes

Ben Hanscom:
Cuteness overflows
With your heart of gold
Not even mamma knows
Does anyone?
I know, benny, I know

Adrian Mellon:
It was just a hat. Was it?
Why did you do it?
What was worst?
It or your anger?
At least the balloons didn’t fly as I did.

Beverly Marsh:
Auburn hair
Fire that comes from within
You won’t take my voice
Now the words will
burn through me

Pedro Braña

Henry Bowers:
The anger discharged
The look of the death
Anguish within

Derry:
Something is wrong
I do not feel well
Why? I can’t see
It’s Derry
It’s calling me back

Felipe Resende

Eddie Kaspbrak:
You are like a flu,
contagious and continuous.
But your afflictions, I am willing to share

George Denbrough:
You and your floating boat,
Such a rainy day,
Should have let it go,
But had to follow the flow.
Oh Denbrough…

Julie Smith

Pennywise:
New cycle coming
Summer out, kids out
It starves.

João Velasque

Michael Hanlon:
They all flew, they all got out
But Mike stayed
Mike and the clown’s eyes

Maria Luiza Doyle

Richie Tozier:
Overflowing personalities,
hiding inside
the frightened one,
you won’t ever find.

Bill Denbrough:
The piano plays
as I pray
for my brother’s soul,
It will pay.

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