April Poetic License
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It’s time once again for Pensieve’s Poetic License, a monthly poetry carnival to stretch the mind and hone that poetic voice in all of us. This is my third month of participation and, I must say, I absolutely love that Robin does this. If you don’t already, head over to Robin’s page and click the links to read some great poems. You’ll find equal parts moving and amusing poetry. Laugh a bit. Have your heart warmed a little. So check it out. Read some poems and leave a comment or two to let folks know you liked their hard work.
This month’s theme is Haiku, a Japanese poetic form which, in Western application, consists of three lines with five, seven and five syllables, respectively. Key ideas are brevity and word economy.
Needless to say, I am at a marked disadvantage when brevity and word economy are on the list of rules. Regular readers know this well. My longer posts are best consumed over holidays and while in long lines at the post office. Which reminds me, why aren’t you a regular reader? Yes, I am talking to you… click here and subscribe to my blog in your feed reader. Or, if you just asked yourself, “what’s a feed reader?” click here are subscribe to my blog via email. I promise that you won’t be consistently disappointed.
See what I mean about word economy?
In any case, I’m not one to back away from a challenge (as evidenced by my insistence on writing a Limerick with a pounding head), so I sat down this morning to craft a few Spring-themed Haiku1.
I wrote my first yesterday about the weather in Colorado (where we live. It was snowing.) and in Texas (where we are visiting this week. It was 88-degrees.)
Winter out west, and
Summer down south, really is
No such thing as Spring.
After creating that one, I felt it was important to write another expressing the vast well of emotion Sarah and I are feeling towards American Airlines this week, as we were just two of the nearly 300,000 people with canceled flights. We made it to Texas on the day we were supposed to, ten hours later than planned.
As such, we missed out on Tex-Mex. Nevermind that we had some last night. Last night should have been Tex-Mex meal number two, not number one.
So, here’s to you AA!
A reservation?
No matter. Our planes, wonky.
Fly with us again?
Finally. In a departure from my exclusively comedic approach towards these poems the last few months, I wrote a real Spring Haiku.
Thaw this sheet of ice
Warm me head and hand to toe.
Spring. New body, soul.
So there you have it. I’m not a connoisseur of Haiku, so I don’t know if these are any good. But they were fun to write, and maybe I learned some brevity along the way.
Now go read others.
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- Yes, I actually checked for the correct tense [↩]
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April 11th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Amazing the stories you told in so few words. Very nice !
Where in Colorado? I’m on the Western Slope looking at Mt. Garfield as I write.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:14 am
Love them! The flight one is fabulous!!
April 11th, 2008 at 7:52 am
I love haiku – and yours is no exception.
I was suffering with you on the airline fiasco… in heart only. Haven’t been traveling recently, thanks goodness. well. thank goodness I haven’t been flying. I’d love to do some traveling.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Well, now…where to begin?
a) I thought I HAD subscribed to you last month, but when I clicked the link to your page, it hit me I hadn’t seen your blog in my reader. So, I subscribed. THEN I read your post. Whew…I barely avoided the switchin’!!
b) Does brevity = word economy? Can you have one without the other? Were you being redundant or suggesting subtle distinction?
c) I think you were drunk on tex-mex when you wrote your post. It’s FULL of typos that gave me reason to laugh at you. I mean with you. Because you ARE a writer, right?
d) I bet b/c of my letter “c”, I’ll have a dozen typos in this comment.
e) that would be blog karma.
f) Geez…I’m just now getting around to your haikus. What’s up with that? #1–What are you talkin’ about? In the South we get about 8 days of Spring! #2–You reminded me about the Seinfeld episode where he explains the difference b/t “taking” the reservation and “keeping” the reservation. Also, you used the word “wonky”. Love this one for both those reasons. #3–I heard the longing in this one; aptly describing the long winter’s hold on Season. Lovely.
g) THANK YOU for the encouragement to join the carnival. You’re a great addition to the mix and now that I’ve added you in my reader, I might actually check out some posts in between.
h) I twittered you this morning. I have no idea what that means, and it sounds “wrong”, but that didn’t stop me.
Ok…I’m done…off to visit more haikus!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:34 am
When I heard that AA had shut down 10% of their flights – I didn’t think that was so bad. But 300,000 passengers is a HUGE number. Sorry you got bumped.
Lovely Haiku’’s really – amazing that you can tell a story in such few words.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Swampy, Thanks! We’re in Colorado Springs. I wish it was the western slope!
Lana, Thanks!
Pamela, I love a bit of traveling myself, but it’s been a little painful lately.
Karmyn, Thanks for the comment. Hopefully all of this will be resolved before we head back to Colorado on Tuesday… :/ We’ll see…
Robin, Good golly, I should make you an author on my blog with the length of these comments! Here we go:
a) Thank you. I’ll do my best to write interesting (and error free) material.
b) Hmmm, I actually could argue that there are subtle distinctions. I suppose that I could practice economical word use and still be lengthy if I had plenty to say. But I won’t do so… I just like to use “and” as much as possible.
c) Sadly, yes. Though I never said I was a good one.
d) I certainly hope so.
e) That it would be.
f) Thanks! I’ve incorporated “Wonky” into my regular repertoire and plan use it often until Sarah tells me to stop. Thank Nick Hornby for that one…
g) I hope you do, and return to comment. But only if you don’t point out my typos again…
h) Welcome to Twitter! It’s an interesting place…
April 11th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
i refuse to be thrown off by any combination of grammar or typos.. life is way to short to see the nicks,, and not the legs… if you know what i mean…
i loved them all.. i have never been here before.. but i will be back….
April 11th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Creatively you’ve
shared with breviety … Haiku
forces clarity.
This is my 1st time participating in Poetic License, but I’ve joined the Haiku Friday crowd weekly on each of my blogs for the past few months. My ‘Spring’ haiku today is at Sacred Ruminations here today: Joyful Burst of Color
Hugs and blessings,
April 17th, 2008 at 7:02 am
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May 20th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
What is going on?
Have you been smoking something?
Your poems don’t rhyme.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:07 am
Nice, Jeff.
very well done. I could really feel the angst that you poured into that Haiku… 