Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Wednesday is Haiku day!

President Carter
Still throwing stones at Israel
His intifada.

Thick fog
lifts
unfortunately, I am where
I thought I was

Airport lounge
a Muslim man prays toward
the emergency exit

Actually, what we are seeing here are examples of
senryƫ - they tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryƫ are often cynical or darkly humorous while haiku are more serious...anyway:

The NRA
speaks:

They will come for us;
Our rifles like Yellow Stars.
Vote from the rooftops!

All of a sudden
Urge to buy a fifty cal
Grows much more stronger

Mine:


New York Times
spreads lies,
Wants to end the war in Iraq.
Alas! It will backfire...

Nancy Pelosi
Thinks she knows best for us all.
Her reign will be short.

John Kerry in Iran,
Bashes his forlorn countrymen.
Just like Jim Carter.


Well, OK, mine kinda suck....

2 comments:

david giacalone said...

Hi, Jersey. I'm glad you're appreciating senryu, but I'm a little discouraged by your use of the word haiku for verses that do not come close to fitting into the actual poetic genre. See "is it or ain't it haiku," http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/is-it-or-aint-it-haiku/

I'm really writing though, knowing that you honor property rights, to let you know that I have permission from every haiku poet whose work appears at f/k/a. Also, it is only polite to attribute a poem to its author. The venerable George Swede wrote two of the senryu you have used, and, after suffering a major episode of plagiarism, he is particularly sensitive to the issue. See http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/2006/02/14/plagiarized-haiku-george-swedes-tale/

best wishes

The JerseyNut said...

I apologize if we are a little less formal here... I did actually attempt to link directly to the post crediting Mr. Swede for his senryu; I see I just linked to the main page. That has been corrected; anyone clicking the link will see credit where it is due. We don't plagerize here; I've got enough to say without stealing someone else's words....not even (allegedly)unconsciously, to wit:

A recently-published novel by Harvard undergraduate Kaavya Viswanathan ’08, “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,” contains several passages that are strikingly similar to two books by Megan F. McCafferty—the 2001 novel “Sloppy Firsts” and the 2003 novel “Second Helpings.”

At one point, “Opal Mehta” contains a 14-word passage that appears verbatim in McCafferty’s book “Sloppy Firsts.”

{LINK:http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512948}

Anyway...No attempt was made to claim this poetry as mine or anyone elses; my own half-hearted attempts are labeled as such. Also note those that even those referred to as "The NRA Speaks" was actually from an unorganized "ammo-political" message board. Like I said, a tad less formal.

And I do make it clear, halfway through, that what was being presented was actually Senryu, rather than Haiku...but what kind of lead is "Tuesday Morning Senryu"? Do you see the NY Times leading with "US Economy Booming"? Or "US Wins Decisive Victory in Najaf"? Huh? Do ya?

I always like to mix it up with a Harvard guy, but over Haiku (whoops, Senryu)? My heart is just not in it...now, if you want to have a go over my take on Ayn Rand's definition of morality and its implication in today's world,feel free...(here: http://jerseynut.blogspot.com/2007/01/tuesday-morality-play.html#links)