The Lunch Poets Society

If you aren't getting excited for the Chicago conference you're either dead, medicated, or a eunuch.

Or perhaps you are like our friend earthquake who revealed to me on Friday night that he didn't even know that the Chicago conference was coming up.
If you are in the same clueless boat as him you need to consult the Chicago conference post (located HERE) and get your ass in gear!! Because the party starts in TEN DAYS!!!

Since blogger seems set on not allowing me to upload any pictures I am forgoing my 1st and 2nd ideas for posts and going with a picture free yet more creative aternative.

HBO's DEADWOOD, is one of my favorite shows (HBO's THE WIRE being my favorite). For the unfamiliar the show details the semi-fictional history of Deadwood, SD, a mining town famous for being the last resting place of Wild Bill Hickock and as a nexus for just about every thing, person or theme associated with the Old West. The show is known for it's foul language but also for the lyrical way in which it is written. A character might say the most offensive God awful thing and yet it comes out in a sing song almost shakespearean style. Almost poetic.

So it is in the spirit of Deadwood today that I bring you the first edition of OWFL LUNCH POETRY!!!

We're gonna start this new OWFL tradition off with HAIKU.

The rules are simple, tell us what you're having for lunch in the Japanese poetry format known as haiku.

"But what the heck is HI-KOO?" asks rico,

Haiku is...

"a mode of Japanese poetry, the late 19th century revision by Masaoka Shiki of the older hokku, the opening verse of a linked verse form, haikai no renga. A traditional hokku consists of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, and 5 morae, phonetic units which only partially correspond to the syllables of languages such as English. It also contains a special season word (the kigo) descriptive of the season in which the renga is set. Hokku often combine two (or rarely, three) different elements into a unified sensory impression, with a major grammatical break (kire) usually at the end of either the first five or second seven morae. These elements of the older hokku are considered by many to be essential to haiku as well, although not always included by modern writers of Japanese "free-form haiku" and of non-Japanese haiku. Senryu is a similar poetry form that emphasizes humor and human foibles instead of seasons."

"That's exactly what I thought." he says.

Let's boil it down to these basic rules.

There are three lines.

1. The first and third lines of a haiku are each a total of five syllables.
2. The second line is seven syllables

That's it! Incredibly simple.
Here's an example:

The Czar was hungry
His work shirt matted with sweat
He bought a halfsmoke.

Understand?

Okay, I don't realisticly expect even a 1/6 of you to write haiku (I'm still waiting for everyone's personalized entries into the OWFL Deli menu).

But why don't you at least try and tell us WFL in some sort of creative poetic or rhymey way.

And while you're at it tell us about your weekend (did miu have the appropriate number of birthday shots? did someone finally learn to play euchre? can jada tell us what melissa etheridge eats for lunch?)

WFL you wannabe poets???