Join us every Monday night for drinks at the Daily Kos community political poetry club. Your own poetry is always welcome in the comments. Bongos, berets & turtle neck sweaters optional. The keypad is mightier than the sword.
These days we’re into sound bites and slogans, text messages and the 24/7 news cycle. Our attention spans – so much is demanded of them – are short and fatigued.
What better way to take a pause than reading and writing haiku?
For April 16, 2012, I offer these headlines in haiku giving a poetic form to events and trends of the last week – and I invite those who are interested to write and share their own! Remember: creativity is good for the brain!
From last Monday’s headlines
Grand jury won’t meet
For Trayvon Martin killing
Prosecutor stalls
Pundits weigh in on both sides about the cancellation of the meeting of the grand jury in the Trayvon Martin case.
Tulsa killers caught,
Confess and kept in prison
What’s wrong with Sanford?
The previous weekend was marked by a couple of angry white men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, going out and gunning down random black people. Now, these were men with problems and bad histories, but I believe that all the talk trying to paint Zimmerman into a hero helped incite these killers. Like throwing a match on a gas-soaked rubbish heap, the Tulsa kilers were ignited/incited. Fortunately the Tulsa law enforcement did not hesitate.
Eight point six earthquake
In the Indian Ocean
People flee from coasts
From last Tuesday’s headlines
Zimmerman’s lawyers
Suspend representation
Don’t know where he is
In one of the oddest press conferences ever, George Zimmerman's lawyers admit that they have never met him and that they no longer represent him. Speculation runs wild - has he left the country?
Santorum’s campaign
Stops before home state defeat
Mitt not yet endorsed
From last Wednesday’s headlines
Same pay for women?
Eenie-meenie-minie-moe
What say Mitts today?
As Mitt Romney is known for changing his opinion - or rather we have seen liberal Massachusetts governor Mitt and the fellow who claims now to be severely conservative Mitt - perhaps we should just assume that there are many Mitts. Perhaps they are clones of each other, which would explain some of his robotic charm. At any rate, that's the reason for using the plural "Mitts". The haiku was inspired by his campaign's inability to respond to a question about the Lily Ledbetter Act.
Corey brings charges
Of second degree murder
Trayvon rests in peace
Zimmerman in jail
Has sensible lawyer now
Justice has a chance
Finally, this case has moved from the media to the courts, where it belongs. I want to give shouts out to Charles Blow and Rev Sharpton and Lawrence O'Donnell and all the others whose pressure made this happen. That is how the press is supposed to do its job. And I am hoping now that we don't have to devote all the media to this from now on - if justice is thorough and fair, we can move to other things.
From last Thursday’s headlines
Rich Romney mommy
Works “only” inside the home
Claims dreadful insult
A great deal of faux outrage as Hillary Rosen (who does not work for Obama) implies that bearing and raising children is not work. Seems to make a sight dent - until a Romney clip is discovered urging women, even mothers of toddlers, to discover the dignity of work.
From last Friday’s headlines
North Korea’s launch
Falls into sea. Whom to blame?
Friday the thirteenth?
Mayor Booker saves
Woman out of burning house
Newark’s superman!
I liked Corey Booker before this. I like him even more now. Wow!
Weekend
Oklahoma winds
Sweep away homes and people
Climate change or not?
Caught calling call girls
Secret service men sent home
Even they like sex
Imagine if we were not such idiots about sex!
More meta
A war on women
Or war on caterpillars?
Injury, insult.
Guns don’t kill people
Claims the die-hard NRA
How stupid are we?
Millionaires’ tax rate
Lower than secretaries’
Dare we say unfair
*
Please try your own! In English, haiku are traditionally seventeen syllables long, with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five more syllables in the third line. See more about haiku at http://en.wikipedia.org/...
*
If you really like writing poetry, consider entering a poem into a contest being held through April 30, 2012 at my website, honoring the Greek (Roman) Olympian god Ares (Mars). For more information go here. You can also read the winning entries from previous contests by clicking on names such as "Apollo" and "Artemis".
If you prefer prose – if you need to make a longer and more complete escape from the harsh realities of today – consider our historical fiction, set in the Late Bronze Age of ancient Greece. You can read about Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus. Or you can read about the adventures of Niobe in our trilogy: Children of Tantalus: Niobe & Pelops; The Road to Thebes: Niobe & Amphion; and Arrows of Artemis: Niobe & Chloris. In the trilogy you’ll find our solution to a mass murder that has gone practically undetected for more than three millennia.
All books available in hard copy and in electronic formats, and will remind you that problems and political machinations are a part of the human condition.
For more information about our series go to Tapestry of Bronze.
*
Note: I am in Europe so when this thread is most active I may not be.