In the valley of/desert and neon, haiku/has us linger, still

Momentarily/First Friday streets tell us words/corralled from tweeters

Projections share the/sensory tales of glory/or of whatever

Loosely translated: In keeping loyal to the idea of community togetherness on the busiest night of the month for Downtown, First Friday organizers launched a little haiku project on Twitter last month. Asking the community (via haiku) to tweet its haiku, it opened a portal not just for local haiku novices, but devotees of the poetic form from around the world, says First Friday’s Charles Ressler.

The 55 haiku they received will be projected as a video onto the walls and streets during First Friday, for a brief duration of time on South Casino Center Boulevard at East California and East Colorado avenues. The projections tie in with First Friday’s February theme of poetry with pop-up poetry readings and with performances by the community group Human Experience, known for its open-mic events at the Beat.

Ressler says it’s been a lovely month waking up every morning to the haiku being sent his way: “Sometimes you can hear their inner monologue and thoughts. Some of them are Vegas-driven.”