Poetry Museum

Silent Movie Art

Stephen King captures the essence of a scene in 13-16 words. He restates the simple phrase, The Picnic Basket, twice in the sixteen word paragraph.   The poetic form is 5 syllable, followed by 12 syllable, then concludes with 5 syllable. Then if you subtract the repeated words picnic basic and include that in place of the you find a Haiku, 5-7-5.  The haiku form creates a great tension between order and chaos, and makes us (the reader) take heed.   The words remind me of William Carlos Williams the Red Wheelbarrow.  

The picnic basket.
That damned red picnic basket full of her drawings.
How that haunts me.  

- Duma Key page 347.

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams

---

so much depends
upon a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.