Haiku

For the next two weeks in poetry class, we are working on haiku and a related form, waka, or tanka (5-7-5-7-7). The length gives me the luxury of starting early so I can get the mediocre stuff out before turning in something dazzling. Here's some of the mediocre stuff that I actually like well, but don't find quite "poetic" enough to turn in. Then again, maybe I could just say I'm re-envisioning the haiku.

James Lee Burke is a
beautiful name. Let's say it
again: James Lee Burke.

What if you were the
first man to hear a heart?
Wouldn't you be afraid?

This one has a title: Terms I Forgot for Disconcertingly Long Periods of Time.
Bruschetta. Challenge.
Zodiac. Beside the point.
Posthumous. Candide.


They are really fun to make. It's the kind of thing one can do while waiting in line or something.

Some men fighting in, I think, the Civil War experienced a condition called soldier's heart. Then in World War I, the same condition was called shellshock, in WW II battle fatigue, and now it's post-traumatic stress disorder (or syndrome). What a shame that we're getting less poetic. On the other hand, someone with a good ear renamed dephlogisticated air and called it oxygen. So we're not going altogether downhill.