Monday, November 10, 2008

Something tells me I’m missing the point of these haiku thingies.

Today in Japanese class we watched a documentary on Japanese culture (we watch a lot of them actually, part of a Japanese culture series. I forget the name unfortunately. There will be more opportunities to learn it.) Anyway, it featured a Welsh poet who moved to Japan to write haiku poems and to study Karate. His writing is very pastoral, and it is clear that he loves nature, particularly the woods and the cherry blossoms. He apparently purchased 25 acres of badly mistreated (over-cut by loggers) woodland, and has hired two full-time workers to restore his neck of the woods to health. As he says to his friends, “it’s my land, but it’s your country.”

I can’t remember his haiku exactly, but one of them went more or less like this:

Strangers, you and I?
Under the cherry blossoms,
We’re certainly not.

Deep, huh? I wish I could write like that. Well, my understanding is that generally haiku should have to do with nature, but I’m more caught up in the rhythm of them. They can give the illusion of profoundness to the most asinine thoughts. That’s why I like them.

I would like to see
An epic movie starring
A great big sex cake

Silly, I know, but rhythmically just as sound. Anyway, I think I’ve wasted enough of your and my time for one day, and I have an essay on Thomas More’s Utopia due tomorrow.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some friends and I (whose named rhyme with "Ken" and "Scarion") used to have a game where we'd see who could come up with the filthiest dirty haiku. Okay, it was less of a game and more of a gross-out contest. Here are some of my favourites (artistic typos intact):

I nailed my girlfriend
Like the Romans nailed Jesus
To the crucifix

By saving my shit
I can make twice as many
Chocolate brownies

a rusty trombone
here comes the bean burrito
all over your face

So soft and stinky
There's nothing like a good shit
After intercourse

i know a fellow
whos foreskin smokes his herbal
the stoner boner

The optometrists'
Great place to pick up bitches
For hot skullfucking

Confucious him say
A big cock in the asshole
Worth two in the bush

In retrospect, I'm not sure that this is an appropriate comment on your blog. Please, feel free to delete it if you deem it too filthy, which it is, even if you don't deem it so.

Unknown said...

I like your haiku better.

Inkpot said...

I was going to write a profound comment about haikus, but after reading ema's comment all I can say is 'eeeewwwwww'.