Haiga · seventeen syllable images

welcome to the world of Winston Everlast

Poems of seventeen syllables, images answered by a machine — and now, songs made from both.

Artist statement

Each haiga begins as a poem — seventeen syllables, counted strictly, five-seven-five. The finished poem then becomes the prompt: handed, word for word, to MidJourney, an artificial intelligence that answers language with images. Most of what comes back is refused. The one image that moves — that surprises, unsettles, or delights before it explains — is kept, and poem and image are sealed together in a single Polaroid frame: an instant that will not happen again.

The work spans every version of MidJourney since its public release in 2022 — from the dreamlike, gloriously unreliable early models to the interpretive sophistication of the latest — and no image is ever remade with a newer version. Each haiga stays in the version of machine vision that existed the moment it was made, so the collection doubles as a chronicle of how a machine learned to see.

Read the full story of the form →

Haiga in song

The Songs

Twenty-two songs, each built from thirty-three haiga arranged into a single arc and set to music — every image returns on screen as its line is sung.

No. 16 · 33 haiga · 5:16
The Burn Your Heart Needs

Burning Man, from arrival to Exodus — all Ten Principles in thirty-three haiga.

See the haiga in this song →

No. 15 · 33 haiga · 4:37
All Hallows’ Eve

Halloween, and the gallows humor of the dead.

No. 12 · 33 haiga · 4:55
The Robe Stays Behind

The lawyer’s arc, from the bar to the bench — and what is left when the robe comes off.

All the songs

22 songs · tap to play above · song pages →

No. 01 · 5:08 Memento Mori Birth to death, in thirty-three breaths.
No. 02 · 5:50 Love Is the Answer A love story, from the beginning to whatever comes after.
No. 03 · 4:27 Words, Sounds, and Silence The artist’s life — the making, the doubt, the work.
No. 04 · 5:19 The Name We Share Family, carried across generations.
No. 05 · 5:41 Silicon Minds Humans and the machines we keep building.
No. 06 · 5:24 One Night Dusk to dawn, and everything the dark says.
No. 07 · 4:34 In the Beginning Creation to the end times.
No. 08 · 4:31 One Year The seasons, turning once all the way round.
No. 09 · 5:38 Dig Two Graves Revenge to forgiveness, with a spaghetti-western swagger.
No. 10 · 4:43 The Hero of Your Own Life The quest — the call, the road, the return.
No. 11 · 4:41 Birds of a Feather Friendship, and who shows up.
No. 12 · 4:55 The Robe Stays Behind The lawyer’s arc, from the bar to the bench — and what is left when the robe comes off.
No. 13 · 5:33 One Breath Stillness, held for as long as it will hold.
No. 14 · 4:22 Curiosity Killed the Cat The barnyard, and everything with four legs in it.
No. 15 · 4:37 All Hallows’ Eve Halloween, and the gallows humor of the dead.
No. 16 · 5:16 The Burn Your Heart Needs Burning Man, from arrival to Exodus — all Ten Principles in thirty-three haiga.
No. 17 · 4:25 What Law Forgot Equity: the quarrel, the bench, the maxims, conscience.
No. 18 · 4:50 A Wise Person Learns From fool to wisdom, ending on Socrates.
No. 19 · 4:33 Hated for What You Are The self, roaring out its own truth.
No. 20 · 4:23 Spread All Around Money and work, ending on service.
No. 21 · 4:41 Life Is Simple Expectations, released into contentment.
No. 22 · 4:41 Haiga Feeds the Eyes The zappai set — the poet laughing at the form.