f/k/a . . . the archives

 

late summer
children at the beach
running backwards

 

 

midday heat

one petal of the red poppy

sways

 

by Pamela Miller Ness

credits “late summer” in ”Haiku Canada Members Anthology” (2000)

“midday heat” from “Summerday, Puget Sound,” a haiku sequence

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

orange, yellow, pink

what would you name this rose?

Day Breaker

 

cement truck?

washng machine?

inside the MRI

[Aug. 24, 2004]

The Sudan Day of Conscience, is tomorrow Wed., August 25th .  

one-breath pundit  

• Overlawyered exposes an overstocked-CD-settlement scandal. (and see article)  We’re not surprised; really.
  
• 
  
  MyShingle has two interesting postings (here and here) on assigned counsel shortages.  
  
  
• 
  
  We’ve mused about lawyer sites with ads being tacky.  Oscar E. Toscano (of Glendale, CA,) might prove our point. E.g., his home and Reasonable Prices pages.

• 
  
  Mass. bar advocate boycott:  While Hampden bar group president Bonavita sees no organized effort to get fees raised:
  
  
  
  
  • 
    
    high court Justice Spina is worried the courts will become “hostage to lawyers” who don’t like the pay.
    
    
  • 
    
    Asst. AG Kehoe notes “They are … putting the squeeze on, aren’t they?  They are staying in the program, hoping the pay will go up?”
    
    
  • 
    
    Ed. Note:  Mass. news media still refuse to use the “b” word (boycott). 

 

late summer
children at the beach
running backwards

 

 

midday heat

one petal of the red poppy

sways

 

by Pamela Miller Ness

credits “late summer” in ”Haiku Canada Members Anthology” (2000)

“midday heat” from “Summerday, Puget Sound,” a haiku sequence

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

orange, yellow, pink

what would you name this rose?

Day Breaker

 

cement truck?

washng machine?

inside the MRI

[Aug. 24, 2004]

The Sudan Day of Conscience, is tomorrow Wed., August 25th .  

one-breath pundit  

• Overlawyered exposes an overstocked-CD-settlement scandal. (and see article)  We’re not surprised; really.
  
• 
  
  MyShingle has two interesting postings (here and here) on assigned counsel shortages.  
  
  
• 
  
  We’ve mused about lawyer sites with ads being tacky.  Oscar E. Toscano (of Glendale, CA,) might prove our point. E.g., his home and Reasonable Prices pages.

• 
  
  Mass. bar advocate boycott:  While Hampden bar group president Bonavita sees no organized effort to get fees raised:
  
  
  
  
  • 
    
    high court Justice Spina is worried the courts will become “hostage to lawyers” who don’t like the pay.
    
    
  • 
    
    Asst. AG Kehoe notes “They are … putting the squeeze on, aren’t they?  They are staying in the program, hoping the pay will go up?”
    
    
  • 
    
    Ed. Note:  Mass. news media still refuse to use the “b” word (boycott). 

on the face

that last night called me names

morning sunbeam

 

 

under the dirty,

one-eyed hen      a perfect

white egg

 

from  Almost Unseen: Selected Haiku of George Swede 

(Brooks Books, 2000)  

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

[second try]

 

honking out my window –

frowns for the cabbie

smiles for the geese

                                                       [Aug. 23, 2004]

 

from Presents of Mind, haiku and illustrations by Jim Kacian

(Katsura/Red Moon Press, 1996).

 

      clear here

but haze to the east

   haze to the west

 

 

      heat lightning

a silent snake strikes

  the meadow mouse

 

 moonless night

the dark path lit

 by glowworms

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

out my window

the cabbie honking

geese, too                     

  [Aug. 22, 2004]

one-breath pundit  

• Jim Moore gives space to a dissenting voice on the Dafur crisis — a perspective worth knowing.
  
• Good advice to Kerry from Ivins on the Iraq War.
  
• Crammer vs. Crammer – hot debate at Evan’s place over lawyers who cram, and p/i women.
  
• 
  
  Make “internet”, “net” and “web” lower-case: Tony Long.  Not when it’s confusing: Prof. Yabut.  (via B&B)
  
  
• 
  
  seize the (summer) day!
  
  
• 
  
  but, first, read Rufus T. on the ATLA-Schaeffer conspiracy; and being poetic on the LAW.

Join the Sudan Day of Conscience, August 25th    (see why it’s important) 

from Presents of Mind, haiku and illustrations by Jim Kacian

(Katsura/Red Moon Press, 1996).

 

      clear here

but haze to the east

   haze to the west

 

 

      heat lightning

a silent snake strikes

  the meadow mouse

 

 moonless night

the dark path lit

 by glowworms

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

out my window

the cabbie honking

geese, too                     

  [Aug. 22, 2004]

one-breath pundit  

• Jim Moore gives space to a dissenting voice on the Dafur crisis — a perspective worth knowing.
  
• Good advice to Kerry from Ivins on the Iraq War.
  
• Crammer vs. Crammer – hot debate at Evan’s place over lawyers who cram, and p/i women.
  
• 
  
  Make “internet”, “net” and “web” lower-case: Tony Long.  Not when it’s confusing: Prof. Yabut.  (via B&B)
  
  
• 
  
  seize the (summer) day!
  
  
• 
  
  but, first, read Rufus T. on the ATLA-Schaeffer conspiracy; and being poetic on the LAW.

Join the Sudan Day of Conscience, August 25th    (see why it’s important) 

 

nobody on the street

stray dog stops to bite

its wagging tail

from  Almost Unseen: Selected Haiku

of George Swede (Brooks Books, 2000) 

 

  No, I haven’t been chasing my own tail or smoking wacky tabaccy.  But,

I have been feeling slightly out of control ever since I discovered this weblog’s

Referers Page a couple weeks ago.  I keep going back to it and clicking to see

the [purported] sources of page hits or visitors to f/k/a . ., especially, when the

referer URL is a search engine.

 

Sure, I could chalk this up to playful curiosity, or the haiku-lover’s penchant

for surprise and juxtaposition.  But, it feels obsessive — as if it is taking up

far too many of each days scarce minutes.

 

It’s not as if I’m alone in this practice:  [click here for the rest of this story]

 

smoking a pipe
by lantern light…
spring breeze

 

from The Haiku of Kobayashi Issa

translated by David G. Lanoue   

 

                          

 

 

Barry George is a “recovering lawyer,” who left the profession to pursue his

life-long love of poetry more intensely.  He now teaches at Community College

of Philadelphia, and uses his advocacy skills in a statewide movement to improve

part-time faculty salaries. You’ll see his attention to nature and the details of urban life, you experience Barry’s haiku, which we are honored to offer here at f/k/a. . .

 

Learn more about Barry at his World Haiku Bio Page.

 

 

 

Making change–

the conductor shifts

his toothpick

 

from the loose thread:The Red Moon Anthology 2001

(edited by Jim Kacien, and the Red Moon editorial staff).

credit: Modern Haiku XXXII:1

 

 

 

diner night–

the ceiling fan twirling

in our teaspoons

 

  from  edge of light:  The Red Moon Anthology 2003  

(ed. by Jim Kacian and the Editorial Staff, Red Moon Press, 2004) 

credit: Mainichi Daily News Haiku Contest

 

 

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

sleepless night

she won’t stop

leaving me alone            

                                        [Aug. 21, 2004] 

 

 

Join the Sudan Day of Conscience, August 25th    (see why it’s important)   

    all day long
I feel its weight
the unworn necklace

waiting room–
the ex-wife
looks past me

………………. by Roberta Beary, from A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Edited by Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts, Red Moon Press, 2001) Credits: both haiku originally published in Pocket Change.

It’s a very good bet that Roberta Beary would prefer to see her poetry, rather than her bio (or photo), posted here. You’ll find a short biography at her World Haiku Assoc. page. Roberta has been practicing law for about 25 years and writing haiku since the early ’90s. Thanks to Red Moon Press for spotlighting her clear, distinct “emerging voice” and special thanks to Roberta for sharing that voice with us.

• by dagosan:

clock tower with crescent moon

– only the moon

follows us home

[Aug. 20, 2004]

Please join the Sudan Day of Conscience, August 25th (see why it’s important)

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

by Roberta Beary

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

• by dagosan

  webserver down:

  like Issa

  bugs but no net

one-breath pundit

• 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.

•  

  Wentworth likes Wu’s simile: INDUCE Act = Farm Subsidies.

• 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.

“laurie garden”

dried-up pond
initials in alder bark
scabbed over

late August -
pushing through cornstalks
midnight raccoons

by Alice Frampton, from the World Haiku Assn website

credits: “dried-up pond” – Haiku Canada Newsletter (June 2001)

“late August” – Honourable mention Betty Drevniok contest 2001

• by dagosan:

waking at 10 –

noon deadline

a nightmare

[Aug. 18, 2004]

Please join the Sudan Day of Conscience, August 25th [for ideas]

one-breath pundit

• • Check out Plain Language Works for Pro Per Litigants (M. Mindlin & K. McCormick)
    • Most Americans read at 5th Grade level: What does “relinquish your firearms” mean?

  • There’s an argument today at TalkLeft about the appropriateness of hackers jamming Republican websites.  Vandalism is vandalism.

  • Ban on Sex with Clients rejected in Canada.  See CBC News. ethicalEsq concurs. (thanks to W.O. for the pointer)

  • Faced with the bar advocate boycott, Mass. high court okays emergency assignments by courts.

• • • • • • • • • • • • today’s images by . . . laurie smith

                    
                    

                  
                  

                
                

              
              

            
            

          
          

        
        

      
      

    
    

  
  

with Michael Dylan Welch

 

 

morning bird song– 

my paddle slips
into its reflection

 

Click here to see the oringal haiku and photo

from the online collection Open Window

 

                  

 

meteor shower–
a gentle wave
wets our sandals     

 

from herea glimpse of red: The Red Moon Anthology

of English-Language Haiku 2000 (Jim Kacien, Ed.) 

 

this world today–
for one chrysanthemum
a gold coin

 

spring rain–
in the window they haggle
over fish

 

spring rain–
in the wife’s sleeve
coins jingle

 

at the market
with all his might
firefly flits

from Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue  

breathless pundit

• 
  
  I guess there’ll no more haggling with the Curmudgeonly Law Clerk, who is moving on to post-clerking legal practice.  Thanks for the good work and best wishes!
  
  
• 
  
  Have you read Dowbrigade lately?  I just perused the Aug. 15 & Aug 16 postings and was informed, entertained and impressed (yet again) — from global politico-social analysis to a bad kitty on catnip.

contingency fee reform is

We interrupt our poetry for a pet project: contingency fee reform.  Tomorrow, Point of Law is beginning a Featured Discussion where “Two of the nation’s leading experts on legal ethics, Lester Brickman and Richard Painter, will discuss potential ways to improve the legal system through reforming the way lawyers charge contingency fees.”

• 
  
  Despite it’s current haiku format, you’ll find much on the standard contingency fee at this website, as it has been an obsession of the Editor for years.  In the posting Suggestions for the ABA Contingency Fee Task Force  (Jan. 7, 2004), there is a good summary of ethicalEsq‘s position and arguments, with many links.

I’m no ethics professor or bigwig (I only play one on the net), but I think I know the very best and quickest way to achieve contingency fee reform: inform the public — let consumers/clients know (1) they can and should negotiate for a fair contingency fee; (2) [click here for the rest of this posting, ]

 

Update (Aug. 18, 2004): At Point of Law, Prof. Richard Painter makes very good sense with his New American Rule for Contingency Fees, originally described in this article.

“In essence, the New American rule requires the lawyer charging a contingent fee to say to the client in advance that “my fee will be X% of any judgment or settlement in this case but will be no higher than Y dollars per hour.” Under the proposal, the lawyer and client are free to agree on any numbers for X and Y that they want (subject of course to the existing provision in ethics rules and thus implied in the retainer agreement that a lawyer’s fees must ultimately be reasonable). . . .  [T]he lawyer who chooses to charge on a contingency must specify both X and Y. After the case is over, the client has the option of paying the lower of X or Y.

contingency fee reform is

We interrupt our poetry for a pet project: contingency fee reform.  Tomorrow, Point of Law is beginning a Featured Discussion where “Two of the nation’s leading experts on legal ethics, Lester Brickman and Richard Painter, will discuss potential ways to improve the legal system through reforming the way lawyers charge contingency fees.”

• 
  
  Despite it’s current haiku format, you’ll find much on the standard contingency fee at this website, as it has been an obsession of the Editor for years.  In the posting Suggestions for the ABA Contingency Fee Task Force  (Jan. 7, 2004), there is a good summary of ethicalEsq‘s position and arguments, with many links.

I’m no ethics professor or bigwig (I only play one on the net), but I think I know the very best and quickest way to achieve contingency fee reform: inform the public — let consumers/clients know (1) they can and should negotiate for a fair contingency fee; (2) [click here for the rest of this posting, ]

 

Update (Aug. 18, 2004): At Point of Law, Prof. Richard Painter makes very good sense with his New American Rule for Contingency Fees, originally described in this article.

“In essence, the New American rule requires the lawyer charging a contingent fee to say to the client in advance that “my fee will be X% of any judgment or settlement in this case but will be no higher than Y dollars per hour.” Under the proposal, the lawyer and client are free to agree on any numbers for X and Y that they want (subject of course to the existing provision in ethics rules and thus implied in the retainer agreement that a lawyer’s fees must ultimately be reasonable). . . .  [T]he lawyer who chooses to charge on a contingency must specify both X and Y. After the case is over, the client has the option of paying the lower of X or Y.