Say it With Haiku

Have you ever thought
That anything you can write
Looks artsy in verse?

Here's a fun project. Take a random book passage and paraphrase it in a haiku. Like this:


Another policeman was standing in the hall. He looked terribly young, and he was leaning very slightly back against the wall, staring at the floor and holding his helmet against his stomach. His face was pale and shiny. (Douglas Adams, The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul)

becomes:

Second cop, so young
Off-balance, pale and shiny
About to be sick

More:

A bulging sack remained at Stilgar's feet. He crouched, placed his palms against it. Someone came up beside him, crouched at his elbow, and Paul recognized Chani's face in the hood shadow.
"Jamis carried thirty-three liters and seven and three-thiry-seconds drachms of the tribe's water," Chani said. (Frank Herbert, Dune)

becomes:

Thirty-three liters
A fighting man's life reduced
To rounded measure

"Riddikulus!" he shouted, and they had a split-second's view of Snape in his lacy dress before Neville let out a great "Ha!" of laughter, and the boggart exploded, burst into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and was gone. (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

"Riddikulus! Ha!"
Snape in a dress. Explosion!
Only smoke remains

It's a fun game. If you like that sort of thing.