Poetry and PowerPoint
Posted by David Evans on Fri, May 27, 2011 @ 01:01 PM
At a recent seminar in Toronto organised by Brainshark, Carmen Taran from Rexi Media invited participants to write a haiku about PowerPoint.
A Haiku is a very short, Japanese poem. Traditionally, they're supposed to be 17 syllables long, but in English, they can be a bit more flexible. A haiku always contains two contrasting images or ideas, separated by the three lines - a "cutting word" usually appears at the end of one of the lines.
Purity and simplicity.
Haiku link to ideas about presentations in lots of ways - being Japanese, they're bound up with Garr Reynolds' notion of Zen and the Art of Presentation, aiming for purity and simplicity, removing all unnecessary elements. Economy in both the number of words and number of lines is great to aspire to in creating presentation slides. And haiku have strong ties to the notion of Wabi Sabi, beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent and incomplete".
A haiku writer will try to to capture both transient beauty and abiding qualities within that beauty, producing a clarity of perception in which the reader sees the subject of the haiku for what it is. Everything is just right the way it is, defects and all.
I see sleep around
These slides go on and on
When will this be over?
We hate PowerPoint
Need a substitute to help
Bring on Brainshark
Your animation
Is not really as clever
As you think it is
Death by PowerPoint
Sit in a classroom for hours
Try to stay awake
Here's another good one from Laura Bergells' blog.
Present with passion.
Don't read your presentation.
Read your audience.
Why not submit your own haiku in the comments section if you think your writing skills can compete? Even better if you can find a wabi sabi image to illustrate your poem.