When I was in high school many millennia ago, my English teacher
tortured us gave us an assignment to write three haikus. I think she gave the class one or two days to do the haiku assignment. This is one of the assignments that I actually liked and had fun with. When it was explained to me, a haiku consisted of three lines. The first line had five syllables, the second line had seven syllables, and the third line had five syllables. And the topic of the haiku had to be about nature. So with those guidelines I crafted three gems of literary enlightenment. Yeah, whatever.
First haiku:
Ordinary plant
So simple, yet so complex
There must be a god!
Second haiku (and my personal favorite):
Nature is calling
Right as I get into bed
What do I do now?
And, I don't remember the other haiku. So you'll only have to put up with only two of my three entries.
Oh, and by the way........ If are a student and you steal my haiku, I hope your teacher finds the haiku online and fails you. Haikus really aren't that hard. So go and write your own.
BTW, (c) 1983 and (c) 2010
5 comments:
First off: Happy birthday tomorrow (31st-- see, I still remember).
Secondly, my favorite haiku EVER is one I saw on a tee shirt this last spring:
Haikus are easy.
But sometimes they don't make sense.
Refrigerator.
Yes, it's a haiku -- check the syllables.
(From your cousin the English teacher, who never makes kids write haikus.)
Thank you for the birthday wishes. I wish I could remember yours, but I barely remember my kids birthdays, much less anyone elses. I'm terrible at it.
Hi Tom,
I don't think I know you, but I was doing a search for my 9th grade English teacher, Belinda Mattingly, and came across your post on Haikus. I noticed at the bottom of the blog post you had put the labels ASB and Belinda Mattingly. I lived in Barcelona and went to ASB; I am assuming you went there, too? If you did, we are planning a school reunion for this July in Bcn. This is facebook page for the reunion: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/home.php?sk=group_180179918663966&ap=1
By the way....Ms Mattingly was great. She was probably the best teacher I ever had, and always asked more of me. She was definitely entertaining!!! We are all looking for her to let her know about the reunion. One of the guys, Joel Nadler, said he heard she is in Colorado, but no one seems to know. Just thought I would let you know why we are looking for her.
Jenny, I did attend the ASB and Ms. Mattingly was my English for three years. She was probably my toughest teacher in all of High School, and well beyond my ability to comprehend what she was teaching.
Sometimes we don't appreciate what we have. Her "toughness" later became a benefit for me. Why? Because she gave essay tests (of which, I honestly had no freaking clue what she was asking for about 90% of the time) and in college there are lots of essay tests. Her exams helped prepare me for college.
I would love to go to the school reunion in Barcelona this year, but financially, I can't.
Post a Comment