f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

Randy Brooks wears many haiku hats (and crowns) — poet, teacher, and

publisher-editor in numerous media.   As an English professor at Millikin

University (Decatur, IL), Randy has inspired many students to study,

write, and appreciate haiku, and he’s set up a website that showcases their

work.

With teacher-poet George Swede, Randy edited one of my favorite

haiku anthologies, Global Haiku: Twenty-five Poets World-wide; and with his

wife Shirley, he publishes and edits Brooks Books and its haiku website.

He also finds the time to serve as web editor of Modern Haiku Review.

Randy and Shirley have succinctly described the essence of English-

language haiku:

“The essential element of form in English-language haiku is that

each haiku is a short one-breath poem that usually contains a

juxtaposition of images. Each haiku has a break which makes it

a deliberatrely incomplete literary artifact, prompting the reader

to make a leap of imagination in order to complete the moment

begun by the poet.

“The best haiku capture human perception—moments of being

alive conveyed through sensory images. They do not explain

nor describe nor provide philosophical or political commentary.

Haiku are gifts of the here and now, deliberately incomplete so

that the reader can enter into the haiku moment and experience

the feelings of that moment for his or her self.”

But enough prose — except to thank Randy again for allowing us to      

share in his haiku here at f/k/a.   Three haiku from the World Haiku

Review‘s Vintage Haiku of Randy Brooks will give you a taste of his artistry and an urge for refills:

hands on the rail . . .
the humpback whale
doesn’t resurface

funeral procession . . .
snowflakes blowing
into the headlights

two lines in the water . . .
not a word between
father and son

Randy Brooks, from World Haiku Review, Vintage Haiku of Randy Brooks

by dagosan:

snowblower sunrise —

the tenant

hits the snooze button

[Jan. 12, 2005]

reprise-redo:

the ice floe

flaps

flies away

Get off the Dime! Thanks to Prof. Althouse for focusing on the Not One Damn Dime! “protest” scheduled for January 20th.  As Snopes ably explains, this call to arms — er, call to sit on our hands and our dimes — is lame and doomed to failure.  Folks who actually want to say and do something to show opposition to the Administration’s actions in Iraq should consider the following for Inauguration Day:

1. actually specifying what it is they oppose right now about the USA behavior or policy in Iraq
2. having a Get Off the Dime/Not in Our Name weblog day, in which the topic is featured and discussed at thousands of weblogs
3. taking the time on that day to write a personal letter or email to your representatives in Congress and to the President — click CongressLink for an easy-to-use form for finding addresses and sending such messages.

Are Insurers the Med-Mal Whipping Boys? RiskProf Martin Grace has a guest post at Legal Underground today addressing this topic.

My local library —Schenectady County [NY] Public Library — is

trying to salvage some benefit from the load of music overstock-leftover-cutout-stale CDs

it received as part of the Compact Disc Antitrust Litigation Settlement.  As Ted Frank reported

in August at Overlawyered, many of the “beneficiary” libraries were far from pleased with the

quality of the 5.5 million CDs doled out in the Settlement — which were valued at $75.7 million

for purposes of determining the plaintiff class’s attorney fees.   The Friends of SCPL runs a used

book store, Whitney Book Corner, which is selling the CDs from Jan. 10 through 15, to benefit

the Library — at 60% off their retail price.  I stopped in yesterday, and discovered lots of

copies of Barry White albums, the scores of many unrecognizable movies, and a score or more

of Jessica Simpson’s “Irresistible”  [list $13.99], which is available here new for $2.99.  I’ll let you

know just how much money our Library recouped from the Settlement largesse.  [We mentioned

our surprise over all this here.]