Announcing the Pareiku

Hello folks!

If you have followed us for a while, you know how much we like inspiring you to write and create. The success of our Kindku prompted us to continue coming up with unique ideas.

This time, we wanted to appeal to a broader audience of artists with a form that mixes the written and visual elements. Cendrine had already started with her Sixku, a tribute to the Haiku and photography. But we wanted to take things up a notch.

The result is the Pareiku! (Cool name, right? 😉 )

The word “pareiku” combines two concepts:

• ‘pareidolia’ – the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.
• ‘-ku’ – a tribute to Japanese poetry forms like the haiku and tanka.

The rules are quite simple:

1. Link together two seemingly unrelated images as one via a 19-syllable poem.
2. The poem must have a title and follow the 7-5-7 syllable pattern. Punctuation is optional.
3. The two images can feature the same or different types of visual art. But you must own copyrights / have permission from the artist(s) to use those images. And credits are required at the end of your piece.
4. Pareiku are meant to be positive / inspirational and family-friendly. So no erotica and no swear words allowed.

We have created some examples for you on the official page of the Pareiku. Click here to view them.

We hope that you will enjoy experimenting with this very unique art form. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for reading and as always, happy writing!

Cendrine & David

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