The Haiku Kid

Piecing Together The Hallway Haiku Project

2012-01-03T09:08:00.000-08:00

While it has been a few weeks since I first posted regarding the Hallway Haiku Project my English 11 classes and I had been involved in, I have not forgotten about them. To their credit, as you'll read, neither have the students. Prior to our ten day Winter Recess, which ended today, the classes and I had continued honing our "products," ultimately selecting a "final four" of sorts: the four haiku from a total of roughly 240 generated by the classes, which represented (given specific criteria) what we had hoped to communicate to the school as a whole

As anyone who is involved in the democratic process on any level will attest, the "winner" is not always the "best," and with this in mind, prior to the break we took the activity to the next level, from both the linguistic to the visual, and from the group to the personal. I hoped to give them a chance to work with both the final four, like the one to the left ("Life is a puzzle,/pieces not always fitting,/ sometimes that's better."), as well as one of their own haiku which had not been selected to move on in our "Haiku Survivor" contest, but to them had a kernel of merit worth revisiting.

The task was as follows: each student was assigned one of the four (4) hallway haiku that had made the cut based on individual group (hello, oxymoron!) consensus. With the haiku as a part of the visual, students then had to use either Microsoft Publisher or Word, to draft a visual representation to go along with the assigned haiku. The result would be a hallway sign of sorts, communicating on both linguistic and visual levels. Students were told that the visuals, or signs, should be easily interpreted.

The follow-up activity was to then revise (if necessary) one of their haiku and do the same for that.In the case of both the finalists and their own haiku I invited students to play with punctuation use (dashes, commas, periods) to see if they could tweak the meaning of lines by doing so.

The results were even better than expected on both fronts. The graphics developed by the students represented a wide range of interpretations and it was interesting to see what each brought to the visual table when considering a common series of words, in this case a haiku. As one could fairly expect, there were common motifs or symbols employed, especially when the haiku itself suggested one (such as the puzzle to the upper left). It was also nice to see the ownership not only the works produced collaboratively with an unnamed poet, but with the pieces they were given the opportunity to revisit.

This morning in class, one student inquired as to whether or not we would be returning to the hallway haiku project now that break had concluded, and actually get to hang some of the haiku up in the hallway. As I told her, that is the next step...

Hallway Haiku Project: Process & Model

2011-12-18T09:07:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago on Facebook my "friend" Scott Simon of NPR posted a story about his interview with activist/artist John Morse entitled Haiku Traffic Signs Bring Poetry To NYC Streets. Fascinated by the combination of poetry and visual representation, I set about developing a series of relatively quick activities I could work through with my Advanced Placement students. The intent was to have the activities culminate in the development of Hallway Haiku signs that could (depending on the quality of the final product) be posted throughout our school building--or at he very least the classroom.

First students were asked to write in their Writing journals about issues of importance to high school students and to suggest advice to be shared with peers in addressing these issues. This was followed by a quick consideration of the elements of classic haiku through the reading and analysis of traditional examples of the form written by form luminaries like Basho.
The following class, we took both activities and synthesized them into the writing of re-purposed haiku (really more of a senyru as the kigo, or seasonal word was unnecessary) intended to both evoke an image and to communicate a message or idea of value to the student's peers (high schoolers). This resulted in roughly 240 individual haiku (four by each of the sixty students).

The next two classes we dedicated time for peer reviewing and consensus building the 240 down to five. These will next be assigned to students for both revision (some punctuation placement may yield different meanings) and development of accompanying visuals. I still think some better options have been passed up via our student group consensus building, so I may allow a way for previously "rejected" finalists to find their way back in (sort of a poetry Redemption Island).

This morning I spent a little time (okay, really about an hour), revising a previously submitted, and ultimately rejected, draft with the purpose of using it to make a sample sign for sharing in class on Tuesday. The original hallway haiku was as follows: Urgent pencil strokes/tap-tap-tap of lead like rain,/still thoughts pool. This was actually an "exemplar" that had made it through but did NOT meet the 5-7-5 criteria, and so I set about revising it to meet the traditional form. I also realized that there really isn't lead in pencils anymore, so I sought to take that into consideration while playing with the language. A short time later I came up with: Shhh! Urgent pencils/move, tappety-tap of tips/like rain—still thoughts pool. I'm a fan of onomatopoeia and alliteration so figured "what the hey."While students will have Microsoft Publisher at their disposal at school, I was limited to Microsoft Word and online free clip art to make my model, posted to the left.

This week, we will proceed to the next phase and see what develops...

Haiku in the Machine

2011-10-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

Accepting the convenience of modern technology, the author succumbs to the use of his cellphone to "write."

This past Thursday at practice, while the girls team was completing their dynamic stretching/form drills, I was struck by an image. While the image itself was not "earth shattering," I thought enough of it to write it down. Normally, I carry a small spiral bound notebook in my breast pocket, or in the front of my hoodie, for just such occasions, but on that day I left it at home on my desk. Reaching my hand in my pocket, I realized that I had my cell phone. It was then that it occurred to me (as it has to 10 gazillion other folks already) that there might be a notepad function on the fun that I could use and--wallah!--there was.

Though it was just a very rough draft, and something that though I reworked it for about 30 minutes on the word-processor when I returned home after practice (and eventually posted in a from closer to it's orgginal one on my Twitter feed to the right of this post), I had conflicting feelings about the process. The experience of using my cellphone to do this was both satisfying (quick, easy, no worry about poor handwriting) and sad, mostly because I had been a proponent of not losing the skill of using "manual" tech in favor of easy electronic ones.

I suppose you can now count me among those hypocritical psuedo-luddites who both decry modern technology while simultaneously embracing the parts of it that ease their own lives.

American Sentences

2011-08-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Returning to a previously (albeit briefly) explored poetic form, the American sentence. A sort of Western haiku sentence, adhering to the seventeen syllable prescription, but relying more on a modern aesthetic. Here are two I recently crafted over the past two days:

Stalled care engine speaks in clicks: "Keep on turnin' that key, I got all day."

My dentist questions the patient next door, "Do you know who Blackbeard was?"

Poetry Everywhere: Haiku-pons

2011-07-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

It's exciting to see the poetic aesthetic bleed into the "regular" world in a formal way that makes it more easily accessible to everyone, especially those who might not otherwise take the opportunity to engage in poetry reading, writing or sharing.

In yesterday's mail, we received what on the surface appeared to be just another snail-mailing of coupons from mega-store Target. A closer reading revealed that in addition to discounts, this mailing also included a twist on the popular poetic form, haiku. As you can see from the cover to the right, Target invites the consumer, in small print at the bottom to "Stock up with poetic saving inside." This is my introduction into the nascent realm of "haiku-pons."

Inside, in addition to there are traditional coupons at a rate of three per page with perforations between each for removal. On the back of each coupon in a single line that, along with the other lines on the original page, create a haiku (of sorts) about that product. Each time you remove a coupon, a new line is revealed, creating the opportunity for the creation of a whole new haiku, albeit ones that make slightly (and increasingly) less sense.

While I whole-heartedly applaud Target's infusion of poetry into their advertising (and it is a smart strategy to use the single form that most folks have been taught since kindergarten), my only caveat to this praise is that the advertising unfortunately reinforces a common perception about what makes a (western) haiku, that simply putting words down in a 5-7-5 syllabic form is all that is necessary to write a haiku. I am reminded of a student of mine who, when discussing the writing of poetry, deemed this particular form "easy" simply because he is adept at spitting out loosely related lines with a proper syllable count, an exercises the haiku-pons do very neatly. As in anything that seems simple, it is not always just that easy to do... or to do well.

Keep your own eyes on the mail for your handy-dandy haiku-pon book, and have some fun mixing and matching!

Cleaning

2010-12-27T15:28:00.000-08:00

After work today, my wife and I continued cleaning out our cupboards, removing old mugs we no longer had use for. Also crammed into our cupboards were old half-used boxes of tea bags, including the one pictured below. Given its "brand" name, and the focus of this log, I thought it appropriate to post.

My wife was the only one to have previously sampled the tea and did not care too much for it, describing the taste as something like " a burnt, almost smoke tobacco" flavor... so much for the poetry of tea; well, this flavor at least!

Holiday Haiga

2010-12-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

Fresh wreath fills the void:
greeting guests with balmy rush,
woody pine cone hugs.

Stay Poetic!

Random Haiku

2010-12-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

Anxious toe slyly works
against a worn sock seam
seeking sole release.

Stay Poetic!

Frost Haiga

2010-11-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

one last tomato,
clings fast to grey withered vine--
frost squeezes softly.

Stay Poetic!

Sunny Fall Day Haiku

2010-11-13T08:06:00.001-08:00

Risk is waiting
between two cars driven by seniors
at a carwash.

Stay Poetic!

Run-ku

2010-10-11T06:44:00.001-07:00

fresh sprayed lane markings
lend form to naked pavement--
leaves drift gently on...

Stay Poetic!

Can o' Beans

2010-10-09T04:20:00.000-07:00

"In my classroom are two cans of baked beans..."

Waking up very early this morning, I am conflicted by recent events as to whether or not I should attempt to motivate myself to get out and run. Instead I make the coffee and get settled in to plan a lesson about the rhetorical précis. After putting in a good hour of research and planning, my mind inexplicably drifts to the "subject" of Hobo Soup, which naturally leads to a momentary consideration of Hobo Beans, that is, until my focus finally comes to rest on the topic of baked beans. I then typed in nine words in this post's title line and began to write...

Stay Poetic!

Run-ku

2010-10-07T04:02:00.000-07:00

Foot-strike softly lands,
fallen leaves kiss ankles--"KAAWWWW!"
Crow shrieks approval.

Stay Poetic!

Haiku is...

2010-10-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

I had originally posted this on one of my many forgotten blogs, and just recently came across it again. As I find interesting perspectives on what haiku, or poetry in general are, I will endeavor to post them here (at least until I get bored of doing so or forget about this blog, too :)

‎"A real haiku's gotta be as simple as porridge and yet make you see the real thing, like the greatest haiku of them all probably is the one that goes 'The sparrow hops along the veranda, with wet feet.' By Shiki. You see the wet footprints like a vision in your mind and yet in those few words you also see all the rain ...that's been falling that day and almost smell the wet pine needles."~ Jack Kerouac (1922 - 1969), Source: The Dharma Bums, Page 58

Stay Poetic!

Run-ku

2010-10-01T07:32:00.000-07:00

damp rabbit waits
for the pit-a-pat of wet shoes
on pavement to pass.

Stay Poetic!

Run-ku

2010-09-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

chill autumnal brume--
steam lifts from leaves and grass,
under cover of dawn

Often while running I'll repeat one or two familiar "mantras" to assist in maintaining my pace and focus. Frequently I'll also work through haiku in my head, counting syllable and considering the environment around me. Often the words and mood dissipate by the time I make it to my keyboard or notepad to record the words. Sometimes, I record them and they fail to capture the moment, but truth is the moment itself has also passed.

Stay Poetic!

Poetic Form: American Sentence

2010-04-19T05:14:00.001-07:00

Following my most recent attempt at working with an American Haiku form equivalent, I returned to the traditional 5-7-5 haiku.

Now a few weeks removed, and after researching some potential poetic forms to work with my 11th grade AP students, I happened upon another Western haiku variant "invented" by Allen Ginsberg, the American Sentence.

While still adhering to the 17 syllable standard of the traditional haiku, the imagery included in the sentence is presented in a linear fashion reflective of the left-to-right reading of English as opposed o the top-to-bottom approach in Japanese haiku.Take 10 minutes to slow down, look around. Write one well developed sentences consisting of 17 syllables in which you make a direct observation of what is around you. In explaining to my students how to write an AS, I suggested that an exemplary product would include at least one of the following:

clear concrete images, juxtaposition (The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development.), found poetry (a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and/or lines, and consequently meaning), reflect a degree of "mindfulness," be "compressed" (condensed) for maximum information, minimum number of syllables, and/or demotic speech (of or pertaining to the ordinary, everyday, current form of a language; vernacular).

As a ways of making the from "collaborative," I asked students to write chains of sentences, by first writing an AS, then asking four others to add their own sentence, before finally contributing their own sixth line. We did one in each class, resulting in three poems of thirty lines apiece.

Here is a condensed version I organized using lines form class:

A Day in AP

Block 1
A broken record is playing with the morning bell as the day begins.
Dampened light slithers through the shades filling the room with a morning glow.
Blank faces stare into an abyss while a single voice breaks the silence.
These literary elements, stalking, hanging over my low head.
Chairs sit, stacked like floors in a building, suffocating one another.
“Rare uncommon words and phrases, engraved within these asylum walls.”
Scritch-scratch, pencils moving under bowed heads attempting the school work.

Block 2
A multi-colored juice box bag stuffed to bursting with last night’s work.
Trapped inside four square walls, feeling like the time will never move forward.
Learning another poetic form as the air conditioner hums.
Hushed whispering throughout the sunlit room surrounded by books.
Poems scattered about, books line the walls desiring to be read.
Heads studiously bent with focus as strong as the thick concrete walls.

Block 4
Why is school chalk only yellow or white when sidewalk chalks is colors?
Boxes and words on the board—thin and scrawled, like ink about to run out.
The blackboard reveals all of life’s mysteries and its chaotic dreams.
The budding tree snatches my attention; the sun throws shadows on the grass.
Students ponder their surroundings while awaiting school’s final bell.
Stop—don’t say it! “My poem stinks” does not exist in this dojo!

Thoughts?

Stay Poetic!

Garden Haiga

2010-04-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

browned grass stalks in Spring
cleared at base from stirring stems
goldfinch says--wake up!

Stay Poetic!

Autopsy of an Empty Branch

2010-04-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Last night's windstorm created quite a rumble in the treetops. Brittle branches dropping through a skeletal early-Spring canopy only to land willy-nilly in the yard. One falling branch nearly hit the car, missing the hood by only this much. Had it struck the hood it would surely have left a large gash in the car's otherwise fairly-flawless body.

Instead, as the night would have it, the large knotty branch only grazed the bumper--a scratch easily rubbed out and forgotten. Apparently, when the branch crashed to the pavement beside the car, unseen, it splintered into seven inelegant fragments because, as you may know, it was already so dead on the inside.

Stay Poetic!

Diner Haiga

2010-03-28T05:14:00.001-07:00

ghosts of home fries past
hitch rides on clothes for days--
impossible to shake.

Stay Poetic!

"Music" Monday: American Haiku

2010-03-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

"Crossing the football field
coming home from work -
the lonely businessman."

Not "music" in a traditional sense, but certainly musical.

Rather than a single song, this week I selected a recording of Jack Kerouac reading his haiku to jazzy instrumentation. About twenty(!) years ago, just at the beginning of the advent of compact discs and the coinciding death of vinyl, I purchased a box set of Jack Kerouac's records aptly entitle The Jack Kerouac Collection.

Among the records in the collection was an album entitled "Blues & Haikus," which would seem to be the source of the excerpt heard on the above YouTube video. Unfortunately, not long after purchasing the records my player "died" and I shortsightedly never replaced it. Consequently, I've spent the last three years searching for a quality record player on which to play , no just this, but a number of vinyl recordings I've re-acquired in the past few years.

Stay Poetic!

Haiga: First

2010-03-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

Haiga is a style of Japanese painting based on the aesthetics of haikai, and usually including a haiku. Today, haiga artists combine haiku with paintings, photographs and other art.

erstwhile robin's nest,
usurped by the mourning dove--
squatters rights invoked.

Stay Poetic!

Haiku

2010-03-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

two knees to carpet--
scratching of cradled dog's head,
simple pleasures calm.

Stay Poetic!

Haiku

2010-03-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

Warmed, the snowdrift melts
revealing butts, receipts and
one lost button, found.

With any luck, the time for winter themed haiku, or at least the inspiration for them, will soon come to a close and sunny Spring skies will prevail.

Stay Poetic!

Prose Poem: Dog Walk

2010-03-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

The sun coming out for the third March day in a row prompts me to leash the dog and head out. When choosing a direction down the sidewalk, there is much to consider: the sides of the road that benefit most from the warm sunlight have dry sidewalks, but they are framed on two sides by the soft, exposed lawn sections. The shaded walkways, on the other hand, have the occasional pot-hole puddle and random bootprints embedded in ice to contend with. Thinking first of traction we elect to go down the dry path, a decision the dog clearly approves of as she proceeds to run through the slowly thawing slop. Who can blame her? The spring time gallop through grass, partially decomposing leaves and branches helps her, and me, to shake loose some of the dolor and dust after seemingly many months indoors. Returning home I am reminded that the true harbinger of spring is not the first bird, but rather the first-dirty-muddy-dog-with-chestnuts-clinging-to-her-bib of spring.

Stay Poetic!

Tabled: American Pop Haiku

2010-03-05T14:24:00.000-08:00

Maybe some poetic forms are best left to appreciate than emulation; after spending nearly a week waiting inspiration to strike so that I might give a "American haiku" a go, I remain unable to string together words that have that "pop." While I realize that anonymity of the Internet should allow me to feel comfortable posting for public consumption even poems that are "bad" (heck, even the ones I deem "good," might be labeled "bad" by the reader!), I can't bring myself to publish any of the aborted attempts here.

Consider this a "tabled" form, one which I may someday (maybe in the not-too-distant-future) have the right experience with which to use it...

Stay Poetic!

American Haiku: Pop Process

2010-03-01T10:25:00.000-08:00

While looking at a random sample of Kerouac's aforementioned "American haiku," a loose set of criteria begin to emerge. While the idea of making formulaic the spontaneous and attempting to quantify the spirit of "pop!," is at its heart a completely un-Kerouacian approach, but it is in my nature so I do it anyway. Without a guide, or poetic form to follow, I, no literary genius, struggle to put lines on paper otherwise--at least at the beginning.

So here are the flexible guidelines I give myself:

1) no more than four words (including articles) per line,

2) no more than three lines,

3) allusions to Buddhism are welcome but not necessary (and truth be told--who would no the difference anyway?),

4) attempted use of common language with a limited number of multi-syllabic, thesaurus-y words, and

5) capture a moment in time (yet another standby to the ole' fashioned haiku).

The first draft I wrote was rubbish being entirely too wordy and "staged." If my first terrible try is any indication, these "popping" American haiku are more challenging than I thought they might be... they definitely require one be more observant of small moments in daily life in order to generate topical grist for the poetic mill.

Stay Poetic!

What is American Haiku?

2010-02-28T09:14:00.001-08:00

Twenty years ago, I was an undergrad English major at a local state college. While there, I, like many of my peers, were introduced to more "contemporary" American writers such as Jack Kerouac. I recall reading during those years about Jack's definition of "haiku" and how our (American) haiku is actually different than the traditional Japanese sense of the poetic form.

This morning, while noodling through potential haiku topics ranging from Tabasco Chipotle sauce to my cat, I did a random search on "Jack Kerouac Haiku" and came across this clarification straight form the ard's mouth (or pen or typewriter):

"The American Haiku is not exactly the Japanese Haiku. The Japanese Haiku is strictly disciplined to seventeen syllables but since the language structure is different I don't think American
Haikus (short three-line poems intended to be completely packed with Void of Whole) should worry about syllables because American speech is something again...bursting to pop.

Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a little picture and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella."

In my favorite Kerouac novel, The Dharma Bums, he suggests through his characters that "a real haiku's got to be as simple as porridge and yet make you see the real thing." Ultimately, Kerouac termed his developing idea of the form "American haiku pop," a three-line poem of Buddhist connotation, like a small meditation that may or may not rhyme, leading to enlightenment. Pop is onomatopoeia—a quick, abrupt noise that snaps you to attention.

There is an explosive quality attached to the word pop; in reading Kerouac's pop, this explosiveness should thrust you to satori. Some of his pop in Some of the Dharma reflect the a connection to nature. The left pop brings a sense of awe and discovery to the reader; the right pop reflects aware as the season is changing. (NOTE: Much of this paragraph's content was excerpted from Pop! The Jack Kerouac Haiku Page.)

Over the next few days I'll do my best to craft an "American haiku" a day, and we'll see how it goes!

Stay Poetic!

Snow-ku 2

2010-02-27T04:17:00.000-08:00

entombed deep below,
blades of grass lay pressed to earth--
close, ~~wet~~ cold and ~~waiting~~ wanting.

The first pass through drafting the final line of the haiku read "close, wet and waiting." Upon further review I thought that maybe by changing the two descriptors from "wet" and "waiting" to "cold" and "wanting" I could achieve two things: further embedding the moment in a wintry season and allowing for another level of metaphor in connecting the blades with myself or people.

Thoughts?

Stay Poetic!

Snow-ku 1

2010-02-25T23:17:00.000-08:00

fresh among furrows,
evening snowflakes settle
shrouding travels past.

Stay Poetic!

Haik-roo, Too

2009-10-15T13:41:00.001-07:00

Sitting at the kitchen table after work, greeting my dog good evening, I was inspired to craft a haik-roo:

puppy licking beard:
a hint of genuine love
or lunch residue?

Stay Poetic!

An Autumnal Haiku

2009-10-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

yellowed maple leaf,
quietly pirouetting--
seek the settling spot.

Stay Poetic!

Poem & Picture: Senryu

2009-08-22T05:08:00.001-07:00

"all day
shoveling sheep manure
the mind clear at last"~James Tipton

The scene this morning at 7:10 a.m. at the farm down the
street from my son's school.
Driving to drop my son off for cross-country (running) practice this morning, we passed by a local farm. Often there are sheep, cows and llamas out grazing in the fields. On this foggy, moist morning, I was reminded of a short poem I had also just recently become acquainted with as a result to a Twitter post (of all things).

My initial post read "(my name) is is enjoying the solitary satisfaction of soaping and rinsing and soaping and rinsing window screens and sills." To this an old college friend of mine shared only the poem above by James Tipton from his collection of haiku and senryu (pronounced "send- you") entitled Proposing to the Woman in the Rear View Mirror. (Note: Unfortunately, the unique spacing of Tipton's poem could not be set in this post, but check out the link for the original type set.)

Though near as I can tell Tipton's poem above does not follow the formal structure of either the haiku or senyru, it is evocative of the spirit of the form and quite lovely in its sentiment. I look forward to giving this previously unknown (to moi) poetic form a try...

Stay Poetic!

Tree Poem

2009-08-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

Cutting the lawn and surveying the front gardens this afternoon, I caem upon an old friend in a new light and was struck with inspiration for a topic for today's free-form poem.

Shaggy center of a small overgrown neighborhood--
When I first came to visit,
you welcomed me
as a well-groomed gentle-plant--
a picture of ordered strength
all neatly groomed branches
above carefully turned mulch.

But now, you,
perhaps like I,
have grown sloppy and large,
the slovenly middle-aged center
around which
cousin ferns and neophew hostas
lay their seed,
a means of carrying on
in the shadow of
your own poor manners.

Wildly overgrown and undisciplined--
softened shape and bedraggled limbs,
together you and I
will once again
find form.

Stay Poetic!

Music Monday: Frankly, Mr. Shankly

2009-08-03T01:02:00.000-07:00

"Oh, I didn't realise that you wrote poetry,
I didn't realise you wrote such bloody awful poetry, Mr. Shankly."

It has been quite a while since I have "participated" in Music Monday in quite a while, mostly because I either did not have the time to consider an appropriate tune to capture and communicate whatever was happening with/for/to me on any given week. My most recent blogger brainstorm was to try and identify songs that I liked which had a poetry theme to them.

Anyone familiar with Eighties music will recognize that The Smiths have a catalog of songs chock full with nods to poetic giants, as well as, a very poetic perspective on life, thanks to lyricist and lead vocalist and writer (Steven Patrick) Morrissey.

The single (for which a live version is linked above) "Mr. Shankly" first appeared on the classic LP(!) The Queen is Dead. Allegedly intended as a message to Rough Trade record label "boss" Geoff Travis disguised as a letter of resignation from a worker to his superior, it is the series of lines quoted above that prompted my submission of it as this week's MM post.

A few weeks ago, as i was writing a rather crappy haiku, I was reminded of "Shankly" and of that particular series of lines. This recollection, along with the personal recognition that of of what comes from my pen-on-paper eperienecs is of less-than-stellar quality to Tweet:

"on the 105th spin of a smiths tune realizes he has become shankly revelling in his own bloody awful poetry & being a flatulent pain in the a**"

It's funny how as one gets older he turns into the goofy "old-man" stereotypes he giggled at as a youth. I reckon it happens to all of us common folk eventually.

Write on and Stay Poetic!

uk(na)yaH-uk(na)yaH-uk(na)yaH

2009-07-31T12:18:00.000-07:00

The moment last Friday, at our backyard nyjher feeder.
Today was the first Friday of summer that I did not have to plan on going to work on the Monday following the weekend. (That's a lo-o-o-ong way of saying "no school until late August!") With some time to sit home and watch the birds in my backyard, I filled the feeders and periodically checked back. I'm happy to report there was quite a bit of activity, some of which I captured on film(or digital camera--see picture above) and in a poem.

I used a few variations on the hay(na)ku format this time, by both "chaining together more than one reversed hay(na)ku tercets. This is achieved by simply reversing the line order criteria for a "traditional hay(na)ku and extending the image beyond a single three line stanza.

Watch out, here it comes:

tree to feeder,
red feathers
flit.

balancing carefully atop,
the cardinal
waits.

quick beakful for
the flight
home.

What's going on in your backyard?

Write on and Stay Poetic!

Synder on Sitting & Poetry

2009-07-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

This post is not so much a "newsflash" as it is the "sharing" an article I recently came across online that might be of interest to aspiring poets...

Tricycle magazine's on-line edition recently displayed a web-button in the left margin which caught my attention as it eluded to no less than three of my personal areas of interest (in no particular order): poetry, Gary Snyder and meditation. First published in 1991, eco-poet Gary Snyder's article Just One Breath: The Practice of Poetry and Meditation, in which he expands on the relationship between the act of writing poetry and meditating.

Though Snyder does discuss his own journey with Zen Buddhism, he shares in a way that does not exclude those who do not sit (mediate) for long periods of time, by recognizing up front the value of even a single conscious breathe.

A long standing Snyder fan, I was amazed at how new, fresh and personal this 18 year-old(!) felt. Snyder discusses how he came to his process of writing poetry and how he found balance in both his meditative and writing practices. I invite you to check out the articel at the link above and leave you with this thougth from Synder:

An accomplished poem, like an exemplary life, is a brief presentation, a uniqueness in the oneness, a complete expression, and a kind gift exchange in the mind-energy webs.

Write on and Stay Poetic!

Yee-Haw, Onomatopoeia!

2009-07-28T02:21:00.001-07:00

As I looked back at the haiku I posted a few days ago, I realized that unintentionally I had infused onomatopoeia ("rat-a-tat-tat") into the final product.

A word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing, suggesting its source object (such as "click," "clang," "buzz," or animal noises such as "oink", "quack", "flap", "slurp", or "meow"), I find the playful nature of some Onomatopoeia to be useful in "punching" up some generally stoic poetic forms.

During one class many years ago, I introduced a unique Onomatopoeia Poem form that I came across trolling the web for lesson plans. The criteria for drafting the Onomatopoeia Poems is as follows: a length of one stanza of no less than four lines and a minimum of three words per line, ABCB rhyme scheme (if you choose to go longer than four lines per stanza continue the rhyme scheme), lines 1 and 3 (and odd lines if more than four lines) should contain onomatopoeia. This is also one of those forms for which is it suggested you have a title, a practice which I have found is useful in establishing a focus for your reader.

Here is a "tasty" sample I wrote back in the day for my middle schoolers:

Lunchroom Music

Crunch! Munch! Crunch!
Potato chips sure taste swell!
Slurp, slurp, BURP!!!
Some don’t use their manners so well.

Here is another poem I quickly drafted this morning:

Writing Process in the Computer Age

Scratchety-scratch-scratch.
Words flow from the pencil in a torrential brainstorm.
Tappitty-tappitty-tap!
On the monitor, ideas take fuller form.

Maybe you've noticed that rather than using previously derived words (like "boom" or "jangle"), I tend to make up my own "sound-words." Yes, this may be cheating, but its intended to be fun, so what's wrong with a little wordplay? For me, it makes the whole endeavor seem more authentic, though it does assume the reader would see and say the "word" the same as I do.

While drafting an onomatopoeia poem your own, if you need help (and who doesn't occasionally?) finding some more appropriate traditional onomatopoeia words, give this site a try: Examples of Onomatopoeia.

Write on and Stay Poetic!

"Tornado Warning" Haiku

2009-07-26T04:25:00.001-07:00

rat-a-tat-tat rain,
a brimming gutter deluge--
the weeds need love, too.

Stay Poetic!

A Meditative Tanka

2009-07-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days since I've felt inspired, and even longer since writing in the tanka form, but it's time to write whether "inspired" or not!

Like haiku, the tanka (both are ancient forms of Japanese poetry) follows a suggested syllable "count" for each line, in this case 5-7-5-7-7 (five lines). It is more challenging to follow the "intent" of the form (capturing a single moment or instance in the natural world) than it is to get the clapping of syllables correct.

I continue to bend the "rules" of that aspect of the form shaping it into a variation that better fits my more limited thinking.

scent of sandalwood--
ethereal streams carry
past the quiet thought.
Smoldering ash separates,
silently fragrant cinders.

Stay Poetic!

An AP Pantoum

2009-07-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

Since my summer break began nearly three weeks(!) ago, I have been trying to bone up on a myriad of literary terms and concepts in anticipation of teaching AP (Advanced Placement) English Composition and Language this fall.

Following an initial Twitter post in the wee hours of the morning declaring my (limited) progress in understanding ("@ 4 am i experience a small denouement re: tropes, schemes, rhetoric & discourse, miraculously concepts begin to fall into mental boxes"), I came home from my summer school teaching gig, aching to bang out a pantoum on the subject (such as it is ~~was~~ is):

Indecipherable terms float about without tether--
metaphor, irony, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, simile.
Confused and off-balance is my own internal rhetor--
parallelism, antithesis, repetition, climax, anastrophe.

Metaphor, irony, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, simile--
the "trope" a crafty departure from the definition of record.
Parallelism, antithesis, repetition, climax, anastrophe--
but "scheme" is an cunning change from a familiar arrangement of word.

I still have a lo-o-o-ong way to go, but weeks with which to do it, and I am finding myself excited by the possibilities...

Stay Poetic!

A Dawn Pond Pantoum

2009-07-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

Another poetic format I previously taught my middle school students, and one I will attempt to write myself today, is the pantoum. A pantoum is a poem with a fixed structure of repetition. Written in two stanzas of four lines each (quatrain), lines 2 and 4 of stanza 1 become lines 1 and 3 of stanza 2.

When I taught this from to my students, and they struggled to find a topic (focus), I suggested that they seek inspiration by simply looking around a room in their house or school, or even out out the window, to try draft a pantoum about what they see.

Like many forms, the level of adherence to structure is totally dependent on how comfortble you are. In the case of my pantoum, I'm going to use two qautarins, thereby employng the following scheme: 1-A, 2-B, 3-A, 4-B; 1-B, 2-C, 3-B, 4-C.

Standing in silence at the pond's bank amidst a tuft of long grass,
the shaggy plume, just below the great bird's slender neck, blows listlessly in the early morning winds.
A pair of geese, goslings in tow, calmly make their way under his gaze and across the glassy surface.
Staring out across the calm waters, the heron's bill points northward, and anew the day begins.

The shaggy plume, just below the great bird's slender neck, blows listlessly in the early morning winds.
Goslings create a cacophony of bleats and honks announcing an intent to follow their paternal guide.
Staring out across the calm waters, the heron's bill points northward, and anew the day begins.
Signaling with his own throaty croak, he takes flight across the water, eventually settling on the far side.

Stay Poetic!

A Haik-roo for Gracie

2009-07-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

soft whines and sad eyes,
deep panting fur at bare foot--
good friend-dog is ill.

Over the past ~~few days~~ week our family pet, a loyal English Springer Spaniel, Gracie, has not been feeling well. I took her to the vet today for the second time in five days for some more tests. I'm sure she will be fine (eventually), it is just unfortunate to see her so out of sorts.

Stay Poetic!

Poetry News: Twitter Poetry Rolls On!

2009-07-02T12:59:00.001-07:00

Though I've always (mostly) been a "bloggers should publish their own content" kind of guy, I thought I'd share some Poetry News with you.

Over the past week, I have come across a couple of news stories on National Public Radio (NPR) that might be of interest, mostly because they both deal with poetry and people. Check them out and comment if you'd like:

Poetry From Iran, One Tweet At A Time Tease: "Persians are known for their poetry. So it is not surprising that as recent dramatic events have unfolded in Iran, so many Iranians who have been alerting the world have written poetically — even in their tweets."

Twitter Music Reviews: Criticism As Haiku Tease: "'I approach Twitter as a science,' (Song of the Day editor Stephen)Thompson says. 'I think Twitter should be perfectly punctuated, should be in complete sentences. Words should be spelled out, and it should be exactly 140 characters.'"

Stay Poetic!

A Stormy Intro to Cinquains

2009-07-01T03:33:00.000-07:00

And now for a (potentially) "new-to-you" poetic form... the cinquain!

The cinquain is a highly structured form of poetry that commands attention to word choice, word meaning, syllabication, and parts of speech, while at the same time expressing a meaningful message. To the unskilled writer, the focus often becomes following the rigor of the format rules rather than writing to create meaning or to achieve a musical sense in the poetry.

Due to the structured nature of the cinquain form, teachers often choose to introduce a modified version of the cinquain thereby eliminating the need for syllable counting resulting in a more free form approach. Here I will attempt the poetic "Full Monty" and go all out to try and meet the syllabication requirements as noted in the format.

True Cinquain Format

Line 1: 1 word title (noun)2 syllables
Line 2: 2 descriptive words (adjectives) 4 syllables
Line 3: 3 words that express action 6 syllables
Line 4: 4 words that express feeling 8 syllables
Line 5: 1 word (synonyms or reference to title in line 1) 2 syllables

Here's quick draft of my own cinquain, with words separated "syllabically":

Down/pour
sud/den, heav/y
rol/ling, drench/ing, fall/ing
vi/o/lent and peace/ful dreams
cloud/burst
While some "meaningfulness" is in the eye of the beholder, clearly there are no secrets of the universe in this poem, but it does otherwise fit within the cinquain parameters. Perhaps with some additional massaging it might mean more. I am, however, pretty pleased with the initial results.

Care to give it a go?

Stay Poetic!

Hay(na)ku 2

2009-06-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

nighttime--
rooftops dance
bathed in light.
Photo taken last night at 10:00 p.m. in downtown Rochester, New York.
Stay Poetic!

Welcome to You, Hay(na)ku!

2009-06-25T05:12:00.000-07:00

While looking through an older class blog I set up a few years ago for an eighth grade English class I taught, I came across a number of different poetic formats that we had worked with. I figured it was time to revisit them and give a few a try... first up is a twist on an old favorite, the hay(na)ku .

The hay(na)ku is fairly modern poetic tercet (three-line) form where the first line consists of one word, the second line of two words, and the third line of three words. Pronounced "hay-nah-koo," this form was "invented" by poet Eileen Tabios and was officially inaugurated on the Web on June 2003. Since then, the form (a variation of a haiku) has spread through the Web to poets all over the world.

Here's some easy-to-follow criteria for what a poem needs to have to be considered a hay(na)ku: First, the purpose of the form (a tercet: 3 lines) is to concisely capture a specific moment or feeling in time. Each tercet will include a total of six words; one in the first line, two in the second, and three in the third line. Remember, there is no restriction on syllables, stresses or rhyme. Easy enough, and without the (occasionally challenging) necessity of maintaining a strict syllable count, slightly easier to write than a traditional haiku.

Here are a few examples, this first from Spring 2007 and a second from today:

1
Lost,
off course—
trail flashes lie.

2
Sunshine
warms cheek.
Summer is here!

Why not give this simple, quirky form it a try yourself?

Totemic Tanka

2009-06-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

dashing down the trail
on a misty morning run,
in the trees and long grass
totemic neighbors peer out--
squirrel, rabbit, bird, chipmunk--
"Which, Friend, are you now?"

As entertaining as writing haiku, twit-aiku, run-ku and many other "kus" can be, sometimes I like to mix it up by playing with other forms.

One poetic form related to the haiku is the tanka. Like haiku, the tanka (both are ancient forms of Japanese poetry) follows a suggested syllable "count" for each line, in this case 5-7-5-7-7 (five lines).

A Ducky Run-ku

2009-06-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

by the narrow path--
hissing geese waddle and warn,
"watch out for goslings!"
Written this morning following an early, rainy run which took me through Ellison Park and along the familair gravel trails of the Erie Canal Trailway.

Poem du Jour: Poetry Happens

2009-06-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

From my photo archive comes this picture taken of one urban high school located near my home. I find myself passing it frequently and one afternoon noticed these words, which seemingly appeared from nowhere... at least in my somewhat limited range of observation.

There must have been a time when someone (students? staff? homeless?) placed varied word sequences on the black metal fences surrounding the playing fields. As words and pieces fell off or were (presumably) taken, the resulting effect was the magnetic-cum-fence free form poetry pictured above.

It was such an interesting visual I returned later to snap a few photographs, one of which appears above. It was hard to quickly determine if all of the words, of which there was a lot of fencing covered, were all part of a longer train of thought poem, or if each segment was a different individual student's contribution. As it stands for this image:

"dawn awakes without shadow remember sacred."

How To Twit-aiku

2009-06-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

Bear with me, I know this is wa-a-a-a-y over complicated, but here goes...

Now that our home computer issues are cleared up (translation: we bought a new computer), I have once again begun playing with Twitter by witting Twit-aiku. The process of compressing ideas into 140 characters (including spaces) is not nearly as easy as it seems, especially if you want what you have to say to be clear and cohesive.

As I was trying to craft a Twit-aiku to post this afternoon it occurred to me that it might be interesting to consciously take myself (and you) through my writing process. At the core, what I'm performing is really more of a two-step than a drawn out process.

Generally, Step 1 consists of me simply identifying a feeling, moment or action that I have experienced in the very recent past. Today I jotted down some thoughts about cleaning my classroom. I do this initial drafting without considering character count... I'm simply brainstorming:

during work today i began closing out my classroom by clearing bookshelves, gently packing anthologies in plastic crates for the journey home, stuffing manila folders with last year's lessons plans while rifling through forgotten ones for hidden activities yet untried

Step 2 is just what you might think... "wordsmithing" (a "buzz word" I recognize that many educators and writers dislike) or revising. Given my nuttiness with words this "step" could take forever so I have been attempting to discipline myself to "publishing on Twitter whatever it is I've come up with after 15 minutes time. What follows is a brief example of my revising with commentary.

First, I focus on a single aspect or action in the original brainstorm.

~~during work today i began closing out my classroom by clearing bookshelves, gently packing anthologies in plastic crates for the journey home,~~ stuffing manila folders with last year's lessons plans while rifling through forgotten ones for hidden activities yet untried

After the occasional trip to Dictionary.com for synonyms and antonym suggestions, and some honing of my central idea. I find that I have an end result that is okay, if not unoffensive:

~~stuffing~~loosely organizing manilla folders ~~with last year's lessons plans~~ while rifling through ~~forgotten ones for hidden activities yet untried~~

It definitely helps if a metaphor, simile or some other element begins to appear, which in the case of this particular one, lead to the inclusion of "seed" and "nurture" in the final draft. I find myself looking at spelling possible limited shorthand or other means of reducing the character count to fit within the 140 character maximum.

loosely organizing manila folders while rifling through ancient forgotten dittos i hold my breathe in hopes of finding a hidden seed to be nurtured for next year

A bit more wordplay (tenses, plurality, word choice) later, and here is the "final" result as posted on Twitter:

loosely organizing manila folders while rifling thru ancient dittos i search for a castaway seed in need of nurturing until next school year

I'm not sure if I exactly captured it, but I was trying to evoke that sense of one year ending while hope springs eternal, maybe in the ashes of what has gone by, that next year will bring about something beautiful.

And that is how I "rock" the Twit-aiku! For what I think is a stronger example, check out Octobia's Blog, whom I've also added to my "On the Range" blogroll to the left.

Twitter, Haiku and House

2009-05-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

what does it say about me when I would rather watch Razzie-nominated films than those deemed Oscar-worthy? 5:31 AM Jan 24th from web

While at work yesterday with a few moments on hand, I found myself clicking around MSNBC.com looking for some news of interest. Nothing "hard-hitting," but just something to wile away a few minutes. Then I came across an article entitled Tidbits: Ding! Aniston ready for round 3 with Mayer, and began reading about (no, not Aniston and Mayer), but rather Hugh Laurie's thoughts about Twitter:

“As I look around my friends’ tweets I see banality on all sides,” Laurie said in a quote posted to StarPulse. The actor’s problem isn’t with the platform, just how the masses use it. “I think if people were able to take these 140 characters (allowed in each post) and develop a poetic Western form — a haiku of our own in which all human existence could be compressed into those 140 characters — that would be a satisfying thing, but that’s not what I see when I read them.”

Full disclosure--I ~~have~~ ~~had~~ have a Twitter account, the most recent comments to which I've also placed atop this post. Just like House said "banality on all sides." I first started "tweeting" on January 10 or so and it lasted only about fourteen comments as I just couldn't see the point.

As a reader and teacher the idea of compressing language fascinates me, but shouldn't it be something worth reading, especially if one feels it necessary to share it with the "e-world?" But, then again, not everything (action, word, idea) of value is necessarily grounded in "meaning."

But, Dr. House has given me an idea: what if I try to post something simple and meaningful evry day or so for a week and see what transpires? It certainly couldn't be more transparent or annoying as following the stars of How I Met Your Mother on Twitter could it?

Poem du Jour: Hospital Waiting Room Haiku

2008-04-04T14:30:00.001-07:00

ficus stand vigil
beneath sham electric sun--
calming dust comforts.

While waiting for my father-in-law's bypass surgery to be finished, and to hear the news, which ultimately was good, I endeavored to write a haiku about the environment I found myself in. This was more challenging than I had anticipated, and while I could have drafted some long, free-form piece, I attempted to practice the level of discipline required of the 5-7-5 haiku.

Maybe I was thinking too hard. When I was washing my hands in the restroom, I noticed a sign which easily fit into the format:

"If this restroom is
in need of cleaning supplies,
or repair, please call."

Maybe it's not so hard after all!

Poem du Jour: Spring Oak Haiku

2008-04-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

In recognition of this being National Poetry Month, my students and I are working with a variety of poetic formats in our writing journals. In an effort to model for them how to work the the process of writing and revising, I have found myself facilitating a sort of brainstormed poetry writing on a very regular basis... two or three times daily!

In the past I have attempted to be disciplined in staying with the practice of poetry writing, but(as often happens) I find myself getting side tracked. I'm hoping to get back on the path by posting a poem each day, at least during April (beginning, of course, today!).

In class I introduced the idea of writing Dueling Haikus. In doing so, I worked with one lad on writing one about Spring, leaving him to complete the opposing verse about the Fall season. Here's what I came up with:

sleeping oak trees wake,
blossoming buds bloom anew—
fresh hands wave “hello.”

Run-ku 1

2008-02-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

flake shadows scatter,
snow passes through street light--
these steps are hidden again!

Run: 4.8 miles in :37:21 min. @ 4:30 a.m.
Pace: 7:51 min./per mile

Weather: Light Snow, 30°F, 66% Humidity, Wind: From ENE @ 5 mph; feels like 24°F.
Course: Kaz2way's 4.75 Miles LoopdyLoop (loop, mostly flat, roads & sidewalks) available on USATF Map It!