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November 1, 2007 12:43 PM   Subscribe

Twitterku features haiku made out of public updates on Twitter. Sometimes they’re existential. Sometimes they’re vaguely dirty. Actually they’re mostly just existential and vaguely dirty.
posted by tepidmonkey (46 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
ha!

I used to spend my spare moments in calculus writing sexy haikus. So I would be sitting in the math lectures counting on my fingers all the time. I had 52 of them by the end of the semester.
posted by cowbellemoo at 12:59 PM on November 1, 2007


House is now cleaner

nothing else really matters

Wow. Just fucking wow.


I totally understand.
posted by katillathehun at 1:00 PM on November 1, 2007


some haikus are good
others don't make any sense
refrigerator

-seen on tshirt
posted by mullingitover at 1:01 PM on November 1, 2007


So I would be sitting in the math lectures counting on my fingers all the time. I had 52 of them by the end of the semester.

Fingers?

I bet you can do a hell of a card trick.
posted by cashman at 1:02 PM on November 1, 2007


If I could hybridize twitter with something else, I would not choose haiku. I would choose a glue trap.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:04 PM on November 1, 2007 [2 favorites]


There's actually a mefite who has been posting poetic twitters lately.
posted by drezdn at 1:05 PM on November 1, 2007


Posting in a haiku form seems like it'd be a neat little creative challenge. I think I may give that a shot.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 1:08 PM on November 1, 2007


I used to spend my spare moments in calculus writing sexy haikus. So I would be sitting in the math lectures counting on my fingers all the time. I had 52 of them by the end of the semester.

That's a fucking lot of fingers.
posted by dersins at 1:08 PM on November 1, 2007


Fingers?

I bet you can do a hell of a card trick.


Quit staring at my dangling modifier! How embarrassing!
posted by cowbellemoo at 1:10 PM on November 1, 2007


SLBOE
GYOFBFW
DTMFA
posted by bondcliff at 1:12 PM on November 1, 2007


and cowbellemoo produces yet another haiku masterpiece
posted by Sam.Burdick at 1:13 PM on November 1, 2007


Cashman makes bad joke
Dersins joins in on the fun
Cowbellemoo is milked
posted by cashman at 1:15 PM on November 1, 2007


Yeah, was that intentional, cowbellmoo?

Quit staring at my
Dangling modifier!
How embarrassing!

Because if not, wow.
posted by tepidmonkey at 1:17 PM on November 1, 2007


Oh my gosh, quit it! If I could edit the post I would, but I can't.
posted by cowbellemoo at 1:18 PM on November 1, 2007


nono... i'm sure we can't stop!

Metafilter:

Oh my gosh, quit it!
If I could edit the post I
would, but I can't.


like silver dripping from the very heavens upon our dark and blighted land!
posted by Sam.Burdick at 1:28 PM on November 1, 2007


You guys are so mean! I get it! Stop repeating everything I say!

Well I suppose it's not even plausible now. So I'll quit trying.
posted by cowbellemoo at 1:38 PM on November 1, 2007


I strongly suspect this thread's about to take a turn for the surreal.
posted by dersins at 1:38 PM on November 1, 2007


Well I suppose it's
not even plausible now.
So I'll quit trying.


Are you doing this deliberately?
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:42 PM on November 1, 2007


Statistically, it would be really improbable, don't you think?
posted by cowbellemoo at 1:47 PM on November 1, 2007


cowbellemoo's counting
on fingers (don't cows have hooves?)
too late. can't edit.
posted by misha at 1:48 PM on November 1, 2007


I'm not being cute, just trying to stay on topic: found poetry!
posted by cowbellemoo at 1:51 PM on November 1, 2007


haiku, haiku, hi
haiku, haiku, haiku, hi!
haiku, haiku, bye
posted by mnsc at 1:57 PM on November 1, 2007


I'm doing something,
and its on the internet!
(world becomes better)
posted by localhuman at 2:17 PM on November 1, 2007


The question is: how to write haiku without counting on my fingers?
posted by goatdog at 2:20 PM on November 1, 2007


Dude, you need to use your fingers in order to count to seventeen?
posted by dersins at 2:49 PM on November 1, 2007


really, really done
with the interweb haikus
christ, what an asshole
posted by oneirodynia at 2:56 PM on November 1, 2007


No, dersins, that's too many syllables. Try counting on your fingers.
posted by goatdog at 3:08 PM on November 1, 2007




I don't think I need to, goatdog. Apparently, however, you do.
posted by dersins at 3:18 PM on November 1, 2007


(In other words, next time count twice-- or even three times-- before you snark.)
posted by dersins at 3:19 PM on November 1, 2007


So, is some human assembling these haikus from various users tweets (ugh!) and then posting them? I suppose that's really the only way it would work...

I wish the user icons would show up next to their line. Somehow that seems like it would give strange context to everything.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:29 PM on November 1, 2007


(erm, I hope you don't think I was calling you an asshole, tepidmonkey. I was actually thinking of me being grouchy about haiku.)
posted by oneirodynia at 3:30 PM on November 1, 2007


Now I feel the need to count every word you post to find the haikus.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:58 PM on November 1, 2007


Count the syllables, not the words. But does "every" have two or three?
posted by dersins at 4:44 PM on November 1, 2007


It's hard for me at least. Fingers bring me victory, not shame.
posted by cowbellemoo at 5:15 PM on November 1, 2007


See, dersins, this is why I need all 52 fingers.
posted by goatdog at 5:18 PM on November 1, 2007


Sorry:
See dersins, this is why I need all 52 fingers. Um. Yeah. Sigh.
posted by goatdog at 5:23 PM on November 1, 2007


He delighted in
Her modesty but undressed
Her rather quickly

(One of my sexy haikus. Hawt.)
posted by cowbellemoo at 5:28 PM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]


cowbellemoo,

nice! it even scans as a good haiku. where you can read any two lines you like and get good imagery out of it.
posted by Sam.Burdick at 6:43 PM on November 1, 2007


where you can read any two lines you like and get good imagery out of it.

Where'd you get the idea that that's required for a good haiku?

(Err, that sounded like a challenge. I'm really just curious — it's an interesting idea but I've never heard it before, and I was Really Into haiku for a while.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:24 PM on November 1, 2007


Oddly spaced linebreaks do not change a choppy phrase into a haiku.
posted by agent at 8:06 PM on November 1, 2007


nebulawindphone,

I probably should have been more succinct in my post. It is actually something that I have thought on while reading Japanese history, poetry and zen philosophy.

The idea briefly; haiku seems to me to be a way of capturing an experience in a few terse, yet powerful, lines. And that if you look at any piece of the haiku each piece could be its own experience.

It is, admittedly, a reductive look at haiku. And there are haiku which do not work. But, I found that I enjoyed haiku more when I do that.

A classic example of Haiku by Basho (1600s), translated of course

The old pond:
a frog jumps in,-
the sound of water.

This one works particularly well, calling up singally images of a pond, a frog and the sound of water. Placed together they call up a total image. But each line can be taken with one other line to encapsulate a different way of looking at the poem. eg.

The old pond:
the sound of water.

gets you, if you've seen how good gardeners (and particularly good japanese gardeners) leave nothing to chance and don't just have an old pond there to look at. But, they also include some way of experiencing the sound of water.


at least.... that's how I read it.
posted by Sam.Burdick at 8:49 PM on November 1, 2007


The idea briefly; haiku seems to me to be a way of capturing an experience in a few terse, yet powerful, lines.
Ideally. But in practice, as seen in the English-speaking world, it's most typically a joke of an exercise primarily carried out by those whose poetic scope is limited to syllable-accountancy.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:47 AM on November 2, 2007


Wolfdog, you say that as though there's no poetry in accountancy.
posted by dersins at 11:12 AM on November 2, 2007


There is poetry to be found nearly everywhere, but most so-called haiku are an outright failure at reveal any. Is there, then, you might ask, any poetry to be found in these nonpoetic haiku? Good question.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:38 AM on November 2, 2007


The poetry of the nonpoetic is the poetry of Now.
posted by dersins at 12:00 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


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