Nolo contendere. Call me humbledEsq, or maybe presumptuEsq. After seeing the haiku of Roberta Beary and Barry George, I feel like a poseur using the pseudonym haikuEsq. Thus, and to wit: I am pleading guilty to overweening pride, and am putting myself on probation. From now on, please consider haikuEsq to be an aspiration, not an appellation.
Over the next few days, I’ll introduce Roberta and Barry individually. Their law degrees certainly didn’t deaden their Muses. As Prof. Elkins has suggested, the profession might have helped nurture the love of words and eye for material detail. However, I believe talent, disposition and sweat count a lot more than degrees and resumes.
Here’s a teaser, from A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Edited by Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts, Red Moon Press, 2001)
by Barry George
tagging along
with an ice cream cone
the senior partner
the cat
reworks his litter
summer dusk
bills paid
the tiger lily
past its prime
no longer married 
only their shadows touch . . .
graduation day
…………………………………………………………………… Credits: “bills paid” – Penumbra 1999; “the cat” – Heron’s Nest II:12
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Rick Klau is right: using “astroturf” — canned Letters to the Editor written by political campaigns — is wrong, no matter which party uses the tactic. Obama‘s site does it the right way.
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Wentworth likes Wu’s simile: INDUCE Act = Farm Subsidies.
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Yesterday, I discovered tinywords, with its motto: “fresh haiku, delivered daily.” Published by technology journalist Dylan F. Tweney, tinywords is a great destination for quality haiku . They also deliver, with free daily or weekly subscriptions, have a searchable archive, and more. you’ve got to love tinywords’ purpose: humanize technology, spread haiku worldwide.
- Is J. Craig Williams soft on DWP (driving while phoning)? He needs to read this still-cogent plea. also this, and that. If your employer wants your car to be a rolling office, liability should follow DWP.