FIFTEEN BOXES.(The Talk of the Town)

Roy Goodman had some boxes to give away. Last fall, he and his wife, Sarah Berger, moved from a one-bedroom apartment in the Garment District to a somewhat larger onebedroom in Boerum Hill, in order to accommodate their new son, Noah. So Goodman, an assistant professor of mathematics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, posted an ad on the "free" section of Craigslist, offering to give the boxes to whoever sent in the best haiku on the topic of moving. His ad reminded readers that a haiku traditionally contains a reference to the season, and he added that this was "encouraged, but not required."

Seven box-seeking poets responded. Among them was Marissa Kraft, who was preparing to move from Carroll Gardens to Red Hook. She wrote:

, 'Tis autumn, change comes, Must move my bottom and pack, Woe to me, boxless,

Kraft, a medical editor, said that her move was prompted by a troublesome landlady. "She blames everything on me and keeps leaving these incomprehensible messages on my answering machine," Kraft said. She regretted that she was unable to squeeze anything about the landlady into the haiku. "I could probably write a novel about her," she said.

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