elfs | Because I'm bored...

And because others have been doing it, and because there's a war on about which I am powerless to do very much but register my disgust, but which has very much put a damper on my desire to either write stories or hack code, so I end up writing poetry, which is actually much more demanding than either.

Poetry is not prose with funny word breaks. I am very much a New Formalist, preferring the structure of sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, terzanelles, formal haiku, and so on. Indeed, in matters artistic, I tend to identify, if with anything, with the Derriere Guard, that rather audacious segment of the creative population that belives in books that tell stories, music with a melody, poetry that rhymes, paintings and sculpture that look like something, architecture with grace.

Perhaps haiku is a poor place to start. It is difficult to really grasp what makes a haiku, other than its traditional 5-7-5 metric pattern. Usually comments are made about the introspective nature of the writing, and an association with the environment, or the seasons. The first two are arguably haiku for this reason, but the last is clearly senryu, concerned with concrete things.

I thought about playing with the "senryu/environment" split a little by substituting "EPA" for "Haz-mat truck" in the last one, but decided it didn't cadence well.

Haiku 1

Foggy forest morn,
Drip, drip: last night's rain is gone.
Hush... a sparrow! Spring!

Haiku 2

Sinew upon air,
Black wings against a gray sky,
Much higher than I.

Senryu 1

Old man's corner lot,
barrels, refuse, chemicals,
Haz-mat truck awaits.