48 thoughts on “Seventeen syllables, right?

  1. milongal on November 3, 2018 at 10:26 am said:

    I think you need to work on your Haikus, unless it was deliberately more abstract and less Haiku…..but that’s just my 2c

    (NB: a POM like you should be proud I’m sitting here listening to Pomp and Circumstance (and mutitple encores of Land of Hope and Glory) presumable recorded at the proms some years ago)

  2. Michael L Ongeal on November 3, 2018 at 10:34 am said:

    In unrelated news, I just noticed elsewhere “we know… ” a lot that seemed to make a lot of leaps….

  3. Even in the clouds, a queue line
    – for the toilet.

  4. MILONGAL: That’s progress for you. Bet your bottom dollar that Orville never had to wait in line for the dunny at Kitty Hawk in ’03 He was, in all probability, shitting blue lights at just thirty foot off the deck, having witnessed the state of brother Wilbur’s britches after his first first crack at flying. IF folks like Elgar and Kippling were forced to stand in a queue at thirty thousand feet, they’d head for the nearest first class exit, nothing surer.

  5. Are all seventeen
    syllable poems
    necessarily haiku?

  6. Fred Brandes on November 3, 2018 at 5:13 pm said:

    Are all seventeen
    syllable poems haiku?
    Please, I need to know!

  7. J.K. Petersen on November 3, 2018 at 6:44 pm said:

    Too much scotch and brew?
    Bursting bladder, toilet queue.
    Air-sick bag will do.

    Red Baron appears.
    Ammo gone but yellow-rain
    Will over-spray his ears.

    Sweet serenity,
    Meditate to hold the pee.
    Ommmmm, oops, excuse me.

  8. JAL have room for feet
    Squat toi-let ah so neat
    Pay no more bum on seat

  9. Definition courtesy of KidZone poetry

    “Haiku” is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme.”

    and the aim is to open a new perception in the hearer. One of my favourites (in translation, and from memory) is the response made by an early ambassador on being asked what Europeans were like:

    “Foreigners – every damned plate is round.”

  10. Think we know nothing
    Tell us that you know everything
    You must know stuff all

  11. Hiro-hito hear our plea
    Let us plunge not in-to sea
    Frequ-ent wind Kama-kazi

    I’m getting to like this stuff, though I gotta have rhyme, so bugger the Japs; we won after-all.

  12. milongal on November 4, 2018 at 8:23 pm said:

    @D.
    “Can’t stand foreigners….can’t go anywhere abroad without meeting any…and now they’re coming over here too” – Tony Hancock (paraphrased, forget which episode, but I don’t think it was the one about the East Cheam Cultural Progressive Society (“We’re the hope of the world, mate”)…

    Steel rods of reason through my head.
    Salmon jumping; where jump I?
    Camels on fire, and spotted clouds.
    Striped horses prance the meadow wild
    And rush on to drink at life’s fountains deep.
    Life is cream, I am puce.
    Ching chang chollah.

  13. I can’t believe you guys ate making urine-themed haikus instead of solving cipher mysteries.

  14. J.K. Petersen on November 4, 2018 at 11:42 pm said:

    I’m trying to figure out why you posted that, milongal.

    It’s not haiku. And it’s not something you wrote.

    Is there some connection between your post and Nick’s topic that I’m missing?

  15. Hitler)…………Had but one big ball
    Rommel)…….Had he two but they were small
    Himler)……….Had some-thing sim-ler (sic)
    Goebbels)…..Has no place in Haiku at all

  16. D: Your Ambassador puts me in mind of a Marine noncom on Iwo-Jima. When asked by an inspecting General Corps Commander..”Can your boys shoot straight son?” Without any hesitation the teenager from Arkansas offered, “Ever spint round’s one less God-luvin nip, n’ thas good’s a injun dahm in tha sinners plate Sunday, mah pinyon Suh!”….

  17. Koen: it’s as well as, not instead of. 🙂

  18. Koen: What cipher mysteries have we been solving? Did I miss something…and last time I ate urine was in an Icelandic theme chip shop; The fare certainly had that stale piss ammonia taint, if you get my drift.

  19. Nick: in that case, let the poetry flow 😉

  20. farmerjohn on November 5, 2018 at 10:27 am said:

    Does anyone have info and samples on aequidici?
    The only source I’ve found so far is academia.edu paper about poetry with only two samples and vague explanation.

  21. farmerjohn: Want to know aequi-dicki
    Need help just ask tricky Nicky
    Very sharp not so picky

  22. John Sanders – I included the definition for Fred Brandes, who asked for it.

    And John I have to say that I cannot make the leap you do. I find nothing at all about a seventeenth-century ambassador commenting on his experience of Europe – a man as highly educated, superbly literate and acutely observant as any English ambassador might be today – and that creature (hopefully imaginary) whose speech is an offence in itself.

  23. D: I guess that dumb ass real life creature may not have had the privilage of your obviously sound uninterrupted education and academic achievement. Only possible through the unselfish personal sacrifices made by simple souls such as he, to enable scholastic enlightenment for others, to the exclusion of their own pelf and happiness . Lucky bloody country eh mate?…

  24. J.K. Petersen on November 5, 2018 at 4:40 pm said:

    Hmmm. Strange thread.

    Only a couple of Haiku posted. None of the others follow Haiku meter, which is traditionally 5-7-5 (for a total of 17).

  25. Mark Knowles on November 5, 2018 at 5:21 pm said:

    Can’t someone provide some beautiful poetic haikus, even if it is in Japanese with translation?

    From a very quick glance at the internet:

    The crow has flown away:
    swaying in the evening sun,
    a leafless tree.

    by Natsume Soseki(translation)

    meteor shower
    a gentle wave
    wets our sandals

    by Michael Dylan Welch

  26. J.K. Petersen on November 5, 2018 at 5:33 pm said:

    There is a bit of leeway. Japanese is a syllabic language, so 5-7-5 is a little more difficult to achieve in English (although it’s clearly possible). But if it’s 17 syllables and at least somewhat respects the three-line format, one can sometimes get away with fudging a little if it still respects the spirit and “feel” of Haiku.

    Still, there’s something to be said for trying to work within the format. Sometimes when options are limited, it actually promotes creativity.

  27. milongal on November 5, 2018 at 8:30 pm said:

    Sorry JK, didn’t realise I could only post stuff that you could see the context of.

    FWIW I never claimed ownership of the work (in fact I thought my post made it clear it was Hancock), nor that it was a Haiku. It was a fairly abstract segue from someone else’s comment.

    If you like Haiku
    It might give you little clue
    On what you must do

    Be wrong on the ‘net
    Someone will be sure to note
    And let you know too.

    There’s a couple you can criticise if you like.

  28. J.K. Petersen on November 5, 2018 at 9:13 pm said:

    Mark, those are poetry, but they are not Haiku. They might be Haiku in Japanese, but if they are translations, they do not meet the definition of Haiku in English—17 syllables 5-7-5.

    And why go to the Net? Write them yourself…

    .
    Last summit rises.
    Majestic eagle dives down,
    Broad wings whistle by.

    .
    A shimmer of snow,
    Burbling creek, lacy blankets
    sparkling on willows.

    .
    Nose-deep in lilacs,
    Pollen dusts our nose and ears.
    Two tongues taste nectar.

    .
    Nightingale sing sweet
    Gay uplifting melody.
    Purge the sorrowed heart.

    .
    The kite is my soul.
    Flying yet tethered—I’m both.
    Above and below.

  29. Haikus are easy
    Seventeen nice syllables
    (Mention the season!)

  30. J.K. Petersen on November 5, 2018 at 9:53 pm said:

    milongal wrote: “Sorry JK, didn’t realise I could only post stuff that you could see the context of.”

    It wasn’t about saying you couldn’t post it, milongal. I simply couldn’t make sense of it. It didn’t seem to related to anything in the topic, so I was scratching my head. I was wondering if I had missed something.

  31. Tried some Seoul kim chi
    Told it leaves the heart a glow
    Set my arse on fire

  32. Divine destiny waits
    Bushido path to pearly gates
    Nippon-Koku traits

  33. Rising sun may set
    Though our people ne’er forget
    We are Nippon yet

  34. My sons have no fears
    War will last one thousand years
    Your blood sweat and tears

  35. It was just a joke
    About “high queues”, nothing more.
    Enough is enough!

  36. Green pools, time stands still
    Lost souls, searching, wand’ring will
    We e’er know summer?

  37. J.K. Petersen on November 6, 2018 at 7:38 pm said:

    Voynich haunts and pleads,
    “Solve!” he cries, fulfill the deed!
    Codex ever taunts.

  38. Forging, faking, fa-
    bricating, a brand new work
    by Roger Bacon

  39. When I count to 5, and add another 7, I get 17

  40. Voynich depictions
    Chock full of contradictions
    Creates conflictions

  41. A scaly pillow
    Let there be no doubt, this is
    An armadillo

  42. milongal on November 7, 2018 at 8:01 pm said:

    The Somerton man
    An abundance of ideas
    But none moves ahead

  43. Imagination
    Use its power – and you’ll find
    The first sunflower

  44. Not Derek Abbott on November 8, 2018 at 5:33 am said:

    Milongal …. stripes and plain.
    I’ll say it again.

  45. Peter the Rabbit
    Pure creature of habit, true
    Not Derek Abbott

  46. Milongal on November 8, 2018 at 8:15 pm said:

    The Somerton Man,
    Not Pavel Fedosimov
    So who can he be?

  47. Not Mikkelsen; He died
    Couldn’t come back if he tried
    Sea death cut and dried

  48. Striped duds? Heaven knows
    Shades of SM’s mish mash clothes
    Go ask Mister Bowes

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