Play Wonky Haikai


· The first verse should make reference to the current surroundings and season (not necessarily by name - e.g. 'Christmas' indicates winter; 'beach' would suggest summer). Three lines, up to 17 syllables total.

· the second verse. This one will be just two lines, up to 14 syllables maximum. Come up with something to suggest the same season as the first verse. It should link to the first verse, but shift away from it a bit as well. After that first verse, everything is fictional.

· Another three-line verse now, but this one should make no reference to season. And while it should link somehow to the previous verse, this should shift right away from the verse before that (the first verse)

· Alternate two- and three-line verses. Main thing is to link (sometimes quite tentatively) to the preceding verse, while always shifting away from the one before that. Link and shift, that's what it's about.

. Every once in a while someone should break the rules and create new ones.

Just reading this makes my head spin...

August Dornier.
Beached its babies on Goodwin Sands.
Sank inverted.

In tepid Essex waters
Bodies washed ashore.

Marine concreation.
A flying pencil
from the land of the Eagle.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/conservation-centre/dornier-17-conservation-project.cfm

'Every once in a while someone should break the rules and create new ones.'

Is that your attempt at getting everyone to stick to the rules Paul? I've never known anyone do as they're asked on this site before...

This sounds like a bit of a challenge but I'll have a bash. Well done Winston for being the first. But I guess you are our resident Haiku expert!

Guy Fawkes forgotten,
the rocket lies on the lawn,
dissolving to pulp.

Christmas is torture for some.
It was the real thing for Fawkes.

Forks in our highways.
Decisions can feel tortured.
If only we knew.

Prickly capsules split
Red horse chestnuts fall to ground
Conkers all around

Boys vie for largest conker
Smashed horse chestnuts split the air

Sad seed sacks shrivel
Slack the hands that once did play
For time conquers man.

Preparing the way.
Light the first Advent candle.
Hope amid the dark.

Snow pictures arrive on cards,
But you can't sledge on cardboard.

Each crystal different.
Each quickly water or steam.
Let us magnify.

Note for Francine: if you can do that Fibonacci thing (excellently I might add), you can definitely do this. Have a go - see if you can make one saucier than mine...

The rules are simple. The syllable layout is 5,7,5 77 5,7,5. Starting with something that symbolises a season - continuing with that theme but bringing something else in. Ending on a different note. Easy innit?

Our neighbours in Wonderland, the 'Beat Poetry Generator' are to be congratulated (?) on becoming the most 'successful' discussion ever. With 375 messages, they are way ahead of most rivals and have easily surpassed the previous Number 1, Moxymatosis, also in Wonderland.

This one single discussion has had more messages posted than all messages ever in each of the following categories:
* Site Feedback
* Influential Poetry
* Poetry in the Media
* Performance Poetry
* Interviews
* Topical Verse

Makes you think doesn't it?

For Isobel... (In the sense that she challenged me to write this!)
I wrote this with a love (someone of the opposite sex) in mind...
I can be so naive sometimes!



Beach bound so in love
Luscious lips surrounding yours
Hot sticky fingers

Riding the huge waves with you
Laughing having so much fun

Wet with desire
Our thirst insatiable
We will come again

LOL LOL LOL - are you sure you don't want to rethink that dedication Francine?? I doff my hat (and only that) - you've out-sauced me and started my day off positively - somebody loves me! xx

Not sure whether Paul's 'rules' allow for comments, but if they do, Francine, well done. Very funny, very saucy and actually a very good poem. That's 4 of us had a go - time Paul did one himself?

Thank you Isobel and Dave... And yes, I revised my dedication! LOL

priests on earth flutter
down in their snowflake cassocks
blunting the fine shapes

lowering sorrow
smothering the bud

Pythagorus's disco!
Our wasted Dead pack
Its dance floor and unboogy

If you unboogie you've really got to unwoogie, but then no one will invite you to their christmas party!

I'm unwoogying like crazy here. Ha ha. And a fie upon your Xmas party invitations!

dark night spins
axis of the north star spirals
as milky way froth spews

Leo and Gemini make love
in starshine empathy

for love is what we're here for
after all
remember that my darling one!

I went and wrote a horoscope one in response because I thought yours was gloriously cosmic! Mine's just weird.

Enduring a horoscope
hysterectomy
the removal of my house

I now have nowhere
for Fate to happen

adjusting causality
as I would cushions
there is daylight in the night

But what if you were born
under the wrong star!
A Libran twin perhaps?

or a Leo holding scales of Justice
next to his heart.

Only Geminis can love twice
in one lifetime.
Sing the silver spheres!!

I was born under a tap
bit by bit in drips
until I overflowed and

my twin continues to run
in trickles at my back

mother makes ready with her
spoons; she scoops and sips
my solitary childhood

Beating darkness' tambourine
on the shortest day
I dance and I laugh.

But fair lady
the moon is our mother
so says Foxglove.

Soon, the Milky Way will bloom
into the sweetest yoghurt
of the mouth!

lovely -- like a yak yoghurt bursting in a yurt!

Hi Ann & Moxy - well done for bringing some class, craft and humour to this wonky little corner of WOL. Enjoyed!

Thank you, Dave! I must admit I really enjoyed your take on Bonfire Night -- and Isobel's too, with her deft, sumptuous imagery-- then your absolutely beautiful Advent one. Yes, rather wonderful, I thought. And then there's Win's finely crafted, vividly lachrymose lament. -- Francine's lusciousness and sensuality! Ann's poems are always dancing with perfect images. And I come along with my usual wonkiness like the 'boom boom' at then end of a joke!

Everyone's a cracker! N I didn't think Moxy had it in her to follow any pattern - so I'm doubly impressed - feel inspired to write another now - maybe I should make it on being late for work in the freezing fog and ice... x

He he he! Yes, please, write another now! I can follow patterns for a brief while and then I go careening off like a skittering skitter. Hoopla, these haikai are moresome! x

English cricket's hot
Australian cricket's not.
Mustn't count chickens.

The turkey's bird of the month,
Or maybe it's the robin.

What does Batman do?
How do our superheroes
celebrate Christmas?

Christmas is coming
Poems pushed and poems pulled
All poets crackers

We’re another year older
And what on earth have we done?

Lennon is dead now
But his naff lyrics live on
And on, and on and..