NPM: Western Haiku

Well, I got a new computer AND salvaged all my old files. (Related: if anyone knows how I can quickly make $800, please let me know immediately.)

And so, we return to our National Poetry Month festivities, and it appears as though I'm going to have to update every day this week to make up for lost time. Let's get right to it, then. Since our last update concerned Mr. Ginsberg, tonight we'll be spending some time with one of his closest literary associates.

My feelings toward Jack Kerouac (1922 - 1969) are decidedly mixed. I've had such a hard time penetrating his fiction; I only managed to get through the first chapter or two of The Subterraneans, during which my feelings were polarized between "well done, fine phrasing sir" and "JESUS CHRIST WOULD YOU GET OVER YOURSELF PLEASE." However, I very much enjoy what poetry of his I've read, especially his Western Haiku. Let's let Jack explain it himself...

A few
WESTERN HAIKU
By Jack Kerouac

The "Haiku" was invented and developed over hundreds of years in Japan to be a complete poem in seventeen syllables and to pack a whole vision of life in three short lines. A "Western Haiku" need not concern itself with seventeen syllables since western languages cannot adapt themselves to the fluid syllabic Japanese. I propose that the "Western Haiku" simply say a lot in three short lines in any Western language.

Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a little picture and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella.

[Alternate introduction]

American Haiku is not exactly the Japanese Haiku. The Japanese Haiku is strictly disciplined to seventeen syllables but since the language structure is different I don't think American Haikus (short three-line poems intended to be completely packed with Void of Whole) should worry about syllables because American speech is something again...bursting to pop.

The rain has filled
 the birdbath
Again, almost



Elephants munching
 on grass — loving
Heads side by side.



Shall I say no?
 — fly rubbing
its back legs



Thunder in the mountains —
 the iron
Of my mother's love



The summer chair
 rocking by itself
In the blizzard



Useless, useless,
 the heavy rain
Driving into the sea.



Early morning yellow flowers,
 thinking about
the drunkards of Mexico.



Perfect moonlit night
 marred
By family squabbles.



The taste
 of rain
— Why kneel?



Neons, Chinese restaurants
 coming on —
Girls come by shades



November — how nasal
 the drunken
Conductor's call



Now that you know how it's done, click on "comments" and compose your own Western Haiku! The one I like best wins a Magic: the Gathering card -- the mighty SCALED WURM. It's a 7/6 (that's really good) and it's a really old card, so it's probably worth at least five hundred dollars. And maybe I'll even throw in my copy of Final Fantasy III DS if I get enough people participating (let's say ten) to necessitate raising the stakes a bit.

YOU HAVE A WEEK.