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#29069 05/18/01 06:05 PM
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One Adam Twelve call
See the drunk man with a knife
Hot summer night rage


#29070 05/19/01 04:44 AM
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Body in dumpster,
bloody; cop throws in corner.
Belker, all is forgiven.



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#29071 05/19/01 12:23 PM
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Belker, all is forgiven.
Oh, I loved Hill Street Blues!! [beaming smile]
That is the only show in my adult life that pulled me into it so far that it seemed real. Daniel J. Travanti: swoon!
Veronica Hamel: drop-dead gorgeous.
"And, hey--let's be careful out there".



#29072 05/19/01 07:59 PM
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Long Springtime evenings,
Lovers meeting at twilight,
Stars wink, moon smiles.

My first haiku. Does it scan?
Or have I missed the point (again)? Must it be Dragnet connected ?



#29073 05/20/01 01:03 AM
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Japanese haiku have the form 5 - 7 - 5 syllables. The cunning so-and-so's get away with packing a lot of meaning into their haikus because they don't have lots of inconvenient linguistic crutches such as articles, prepositions, particles and the like to deal with (and I understand they omit them when they're inconvenient, e.g. ga and no get dropped, but perhaps a Japanese speaker can elucidate here).

We tend to say "it should be seventeen syllables in three lines" and leave it at that. Some say it should be three short lines, with the second line longer than the others. Others say that the line break should occur at a natural break in the meaning. I remember reading that the best haiku have two unrelated statements in the first two sections (the 5 - 7) and that the two first statements are tied together in the third (5).

As I understand it, the three lines is a convenience, not a requirement, but I could be wrong.

NicholasW's contribution above has the correct Japanese 5 -7 - 5 formation and he's used three lines. Mine doesn't scan, but has three lines .

I only know about this stuff at all because a colleague in another life started a haiku-writing competition in the department I was working in at morning tea one day. When all the response she received was a set of completely blank looks, she gave us a short lesson ... before you knew it, we were reading everything on the subject we could lay our hands on in an effort to outdo each other in obscureness and purity of formation. As a craze, it lasted about six weeks!

I googled this link which isn't bad:

http://www.ahapoetry.com/haidefjr.htm





The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#29074 05/20/01 01:53 AM
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Cpt. Kiwi:

My college roommate and I came up with this haiku about 10 years ago:

Generic Haiku

Five syllables here
Something about the seasons
This line is real deep


#29075 05/20/01 04:13 AM
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Alex,

P-r-e-e-cisely!



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#29076 05/20/01 12:49 PM
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Alex,

That was quite inspired! And even though I'm sure y'all didn't intend it as such, it's a great mnemonic for teaching the haiku form. Thanks.


#29077 05/21/01 08:43 AM
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The generic haiku is great. I still like Stephen Fry's


To make a poem
With seventeen syllables
Is very diffic

Rod


#29078 05/21/01 03:14 PM
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Stephen Fry's:
To make a poem
With seventeen syllables
Is very diffic


Oh! Oh! Oh! My feeling exactly.
Thanks for a Monday chuckle, Rod!


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