Haikus to Start Your News Day

Friday, May 9

This project is now complete.

Haikus were generated every day for a year and a half.

When I began in mid-Oct 2023, the leading stories were about Israel/Hamas, and the price of olive oil in the midst of extreme weather. I was using OpenAI's ChatGPT 3.5-turbo, and struggling to prompt it in a way that made sense.

When I wound down the project mid-May 2025, the leading stories were Pope Leo XIV being selected and Chinese exports being scrambled in light of Trump's tariffs. I was using Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 3.5 (new), with a simple one-prompt structure.

Several haikus were selected for publication in The Panacea Review, Vol. 1, and provide a nice overview:

Jan 27, 2025

cold metal waits
in desert dust --
neither war nor peace

Dec 3, 2024

winter desk lamp burns
father’s pen hovers--
mercy costs all

Dec 5, 2024

corner office desk
papers still warm
from his hands

Jan 18, 2025

dawn frost on doorknobs--
federal cars idle
in empty streets

Jan 16, 2025

pink candy melts
clear on my tongue --
the rats knew first

Jan 9, 2025

desert towers rise --
old friends trade
new empires of light

Dec 9, 2024

border gates rust open--
crowds pour through
where guards stood yesterday