Piku Poetry Form

There’s a very good reason my poetry post is a day early this week, it’s to introduce you to the Piku (pronounced pie-koo).

This form was sent to my poetry group by one of the members, James, last year on Pi Day – March 14 (which I’ve also heard called geek Thanksgiving). It’s not just a diminutive form of the Haiku, it’s a form all its own.

A Haiku is written in three lines with a syllable count of 5-7-5. A Piku is also written in three lines, but has a syllable count of 3-1-4. Three one four – get it? The first three numbers of Pi.

Now apparently there are three classifications for a Piku:

1. The poem follows the structure, but in nerdy or geeky in content.
2. Any poem meeting the basic structure.
3. Meets the basic structure, is nerdy or geeky in content, mentions science or technology.

It’s so simple it almost doesn’t need a schematic, but here’s one anyway:

X X X
X
X X X X

They’re so short and fun that I couldn’t resist doing an example of all three:


Watch Star Trek
or
Star Wars? Choices!


Chirping birds
greet
the morning sun.


Math is lost
in
space/time for me.

I invite you to celebrate Pi Day by writing a Piku (or two, or three) of your own. Bet you can’t stop at just one!