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

Last year, The Legal Studies Forum published “the first effort of a United States legal journal to devote an entire issue to poetry.” We described that volume, entitled Off the Record: an anthology of poetry by lawyers (28 Legal Studies Forum 2004), at length here. The 700-page issue is a milestone and a treasure. This year, LSF and its devoted editor, West Virginia Law Professor Prof. James R. Elkins, have produced a spectacular encore — Legal Studies Forum XXIX:1 (2005) — which includes about 300 pages of poetry by people with law degrees (very little of which is about the law), along with interviews and essays about lawyers and poetry. (click the link for an online version, reproduced by the U. Texas Tarlton Law Library] Prof. Elkins says:

We’ve made no claim that there is a subterranean connection

between poem and lawyer/poet; what we claim is that knowing

that the poet is a lawyer turns out to be a perfectly good reason to

read poetry, poetry most of us would not otherwise read. And, we

think there is a good case to be made for the proposition that lawyers

turn out to be good poets!

 

•  

  Ed Note: Maybe we should paraphrase Clarence Darrow and say:

  “Inside every lawyer is a heck of a poet.”

Like Off the Record, every issue of LSF can sit deceptively on your office

book-shelf, looking like a typical dry law tome. But, you can take it down for a bit of

poetic inspiration whenever needed (only your timesheet will know). So, please click

for subscription info and help keep a good thing going.

 

 

To celebrate the publication of another LSF lawyer-poet anthology, we’re
presenting a pair of haiku from three of f/k/a‘s regulars, who happen to have law
degrees (only Roberta still practices; David and Barry are “recovering lawyers”):

all day long
i feel its weight
the unworn necklace

his death notice. . .
the get-well card
still in my briefcase

Roberta Beary from Legal Studies Forum XXIX:1 (2005)
“all day long” – New Resonance 2; pocket change
“his death notice” – New Resonance 2

old dog and master
jostling
for the tiny spot of shade

storm alert
every kind of cloud
in one sky

David Giacalone – Legal Studies Forum XXIX:1 (2005)

passing the beggar –
my pockets start
to jingle

the kite’s pull–
in another life I wore
a braided pigtail

Barry George
“passing the beggar” Simply Haiku (senyru page, Spring 2005)
“the kite’s pull” The Heron’s Nest (July 2002)

p.s. For much more on lawyers and poetry see Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry, assembled with love by Prof. Elkins.