Haiku and Other Stuff

To get things rolling on this page, I've decided to post some of the more poetry-oriented pieces I'll come up with (or rescue from any ancient writings that I've lost track of, laying around my cave), before I tackle the bigger projects to come.

Since the haiku form has always intrigued me, that's probably what you'll see here the most. For those of you unfamiliar with haiku, it's a Japanese style, generally composed of 3 lines of non-rhyming prose; the first line has 5 syllables, the 2nd has 7, and the 3rd has 5 again (traditionally, but not completely hard-and-fast). There is also usually a seasonal element incorporated into the haiku, and reading it is supposed to invoke imagery or feeling in the reader. Although the ones I post here will be about certain persons of my acquaintence, hopefully they'll invoke something in you...

Beauty, like the sun
blazing on a winter day;
She gazes, darkly

Since I have spent so much time in previous years playing MechWarrior 2 on Mplayer, I thought I'd turn my meager poetry skills to a subject I'm intimately familiar with. Most of the ideas for these came to me in a semi-dream state (which I suppose doesn't speak too well for my mental well-being, does it?)

Metal behemoth,

laser lance through panicked crowd;

obscures God's skies.

Missile trails wend through

blasted warscape on Twycross;

die, Jade Falcons!

Won my Bloodname true

no matter the odds against;

Jade Phoenix Aidan

Anger and disdain

hallmark of her life's career;

Joanna rages still.

This is a little parody song I wrote on 3/10/99, when my court case for violating Evanston's snow ordinance got tossed out (no fine or penalty!!!) by a very cool judge;

(performed to the tune of "I Fought The Law" by the Bobby Fuller Four)

I drove away in the warm sun;
I fought the law, and The Hawl won,
I fought the law, and The Hawl won.

I needed a shovel but I had none;
I fought the Law, and The Hawl won,
I fought the law, and The Hawl won.

I went to Skokie, and I felt so bad; I thought my day was done.
But Judge Consuelo gave me a pass;
I fought the law, and The Hawl won,
I fought the law, and The Hawl won.

They tried to fine me for 75 ones;
I fought the law, and The Hawl won;
I fought the law, and The Hawl won.

The cop who towed me looked sad and numb;
I fought the law, and The Hawl won;
I fought the law, and The Hawl won.

They towed my baby, and they put him back, and wrote me a citation.
But me and the Judge had the last laugh;
I fought the law, and The Hawl won,
I fought the law, and The Hawl won!!!