[split] Snow where else to be (in February)

[Erthona]

I had a friend I worked with at the university. His parents had been diplomats to Japan, and so he had spent most of his early years there, although he was not given a mainstream Japanese education. He not surprisingly married a Japanese woman. Her brother happened to be one of the preeminent writers of haiku at the time (don't ask, it was more than thirty years ago). Anyway, my friend as his brother-in-law what Japanese haiku writers thought about American haiku. The brother-in-law said they thought it was a joke. He said aside from the fact that it does not resemble haiku, it is totally inelegant by comparison. He said that was no fault of English speaking people of lack of intellect, as he had read many sublime poems in English. He said one simply cannot do with the English language what one can do with the Japanese language.

I like that there is a movement away from the Japanese association into developing a short form that is more appropriate for the English language. Have you ever heard of a "dique"? It had a Wiki page for a brief while I believe. I would give you the parameters but the site I originated it on is no longer in existence. That was back when big Blue was still up and running. Ah! I found a copy of one by Graeme King who use to operate a poetry site I was on. I'm fairly sure he knew it was a joke, but he wrote several anyway. Basically it is a silly for. It is a four line stanza with a syllable count of 5-9-7-9  with all end rhymes the same. As many stanzas can be stacked together as one wants. There were other conditions similar to ELH, but I no longer remember what they were. The point being, the form did nothing the benefit the poem, in fact it made it worse. Which is why I'm glad Billy had the foreskin forethought to put "short poem format" as a header to this section.

Note bene: Marcella, this thread needs to be moved to discussion as it is disrespectful to the original post and the writer who posted it, but since I am a part of the problem I appeal to you to do it.  

Sting


I wear a disguise
reinforcing my well-though out lies,
watching for doubt in their eyes
seeing my lucky star on the rise.

I step on the plank
pirating all from the local bank,
wondering who I should thank
for my newly-elevated rank.

Withdrawing the dough
receiving nods from those in the know
shuffling feet to and fro
I try my best to saunter out slow.

The party began
out of the coals and into the pan!
Gunning my getaway van
it's nice to put one over the man.

 

copyright  Graeme King 2008