f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

   Issa gets all the space around here, but I also admire and enjoy

the haiku of the two other great classical Japanese haijin, Basho and Buson.  As

the harvest moon wanes, I want to share an example of moon haiku from each of

them.  (The first one presented here, from Buson, was the very first haiku that

I went around quoting to friends — to demonstrate just how wonderful haiku can be.)

 

 

by Yosa Buson   (1716 – 1783)

 

 

Such a moon–

   Even the thief

  pauses to sing.

                        

from Haiku: The Poetry of Zen (Box of Zen)
by Manuela Dunn-Mascetti, Timothy Hugh Barrett, Manuela Dunn

 

 

by Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694)

 

     Harvest moon–

walking around the pond

    all night long

 

  and a non-lunar Basho bonus:

 

   

     Year after year

on the monkey’s face

      a monkey face

 

 (translated by Robert Hass

   from The Essential Haiku)

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

last load washed 

the dryer won’t start

[bleep!]

                                [Sept. 30, 2004]

one-breath pundit

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  Since it’s Banned Books Week, I wonder what Prof. Bainbridge and Prof. Grace think about the

  
  

  Catholic Church’s Index of prohibited books.  And since politics are everywhere, I wonder how

  
  

  being a libertarian squares with being a devout Catholic.  Sincere inquiries from an apostate.

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  The Fortune article about business weblogging has gotten a lot of attention (like here and there).

  
  

  I wonder if Sun Microsystem’s president-blogger Jonathan Schwartz, or journalist David Kirkpatrick,

  
  

  has found a way to figure out how many actual people “read” Jonathan’s site (they claim 35,000 a

  
  

  day), or if we’re getting the usual bloated “hit” numbers.

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  Update:  In response to our recent post, Dennis Kennedy was kind enough yesterday to email me a lengthy explanation for the decision not to include any items from ethicalEsq in a list of materials on alternative billing by lawyers that he and Tom Mighell, composed for the current edition of Law Practice Today, which focuses on alternative billing.  I want to clarify that my reason for wanting this weblog to be included on the LPT link list is the different perspective it brings to the topic of alternative or value billing, as compared to the cheerleading found in virtually all other materials, which do not tend to deal with legal ethics or reducing legal fees.  Although I did not find Dennis’ explanation to be fully satisfactory, I must note that the Trackback problem at Dennis’ site has been (more than) remedied — thanks, DMK!

haiku heavyweights 

see the ALA/BBW children‘s poster . . .  

 . . . see the ALA young adult poster

• thanks to j baumgart for reminding us of this very important theme


• 
  
  and see Wikipedia info on the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum
  
  
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  Yes, George, I’m filling in for you again.  Get back to your Forest, please. 

It is indeed a wild world — on the heels of Cat Stevens’ deportation, we have hit-meister Phil Spector indicted for murder and the Montreal Expos threatening to bring their hitless brand of baseball to Washington, D.C.

With George Wallace too distracted (by deadlines and billable hours) to post on these topics at Fool in the Forest, the many former editors of this weblog have decided to offer a little commentary. [Click here, if you dare.]

all day rain
on the playing field
a stray dog

… by Tom Painting , from A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices

As Kobayashi Issa knows,

where there’s people
there’s flies
and Buddhas

translated by David G. Lanoue

shake your

  This past Sunday (Sept. 26, 2004), the New York Times “weddings” page featured three

haiku that recently appeared on this website.  More importantly for friends of Roberta Beary and Frank Stella,

the Times article told the story of their courtship and resulting wedding on September 18th. 

 

In our guest poet archive, you can find links to postings that feature Roberta, a lawyer-poet who works in

D.C.   Many of her haiku reflect a journey from divorce through nurturing a new trust upon which to build a new marriage.  Congratulations and best wishes to Roberta and Frank (you lucky guy!).

 

Here are two new haiku/senryu by Roberta Beary:

 

school photo

the frown my sister

grew into

                                         [honorable mention, penumbra 2004 haiku contest]

 

family picnic

the new wife’s rump

bigger than mine

 

[winner of the favorite senryu award, modern haiku 34-3;

forthcoming, HSA Members’ Anthology 2004]

                                                                                                                    the poet-bride . . .

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

thanks a lot,

clouds –

no moonshadow tonight

                                                  [Sept. 29, 2004]

 

• 
  
  by Issa/ Lanoue:

harvest moon
on a clear, rainless night
elsewhere!

 

  It’s not too late for Harvest Moon gazing or shooting! (and see Issa’s autumn moon haiku)

 

     Yusuf Islam, f/k/a Cat Stevens, has penned an op/ed piece appearing in today’s Los Angeles Times  (Sept.28, 2004), in which he describes his trip last week to the U.S.A. and instant deportation.   “Something Bad Has Begun: The former Cat Stevens says he hasn’t changed but the U.S. has.”  Islam says “I am a victim of an unjust and arbitrary system, hastily imposed, that serves only to belittle America’s image as a defender of the civil liberties that so many dearly struggled and died for over the centuries.” Click here for other important excerpts.

• 
  
  Although it’s off-topic, we’ve been following this story for a week (see here and here) — probably because of our long affection for the music of Cat Stevens.  So far, Mr. Islam’s explanations seem far more plausible than the charges against him — whether new or regurgitated.    I also believe we should listen closely to Privacy International’s concerns about the overly intrusive nature of the US-VISIT system.

    in this world
among insects too…
good singers, bad singers

 by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue 

 

 

fall twilight–

my brother going out

long

 

 

September dawn

the almost silent lap

of river oars

 

by Barry George from A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku  

(Edited by Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts, Red Moon Press, 2001)

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

just before

the pale orange moon

a bright orange sky

                                [Sept. 28, 2004]

one-breath pundit

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  Let me raise my small voice to protest the breach of confidentiality by the 2000 Supreme Court law clerks regarding Bush v. Gore.  Only illegality or unethical judicial conduct could possibly justify violating the confidentiality between clerk and court — and Vanity Fair would surely not be the proper forum. (see law.com; via Legal Reader)
  
  
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  Overlawyered.com points to a telling column in the Boston Globe, Why the 9/11 fund was a mistake. Besides all the greed and deceit, Jeff Jacoby echoes my feelings: “To begin with, there was the injustice of having the feds bestow multimillion-dollar jackpots on the Sept. 11 families when countless other families struck by tragedy get nothing.”
  
  
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  Enough.  Let’s all leave Howard alone and hope he (1) was using irony and (2) continues his 20 Questions.
  
  
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  Today’s TISK! update reveals where f/k/a stands on passive lying by lawyers, contingency fee ethics, Stanley Fish, the dreaded “haiku syllable myth,” and more.
  
  
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   A hat tip from this “liberal” competition-consumer advocate to Prof. Bainbridge, for his stance on importing drugs from Canada.    Beyond the conservative opponents, I wonder who the Democrats opposing importation think they are protecting.

Here’s another bountiful crop of harvest-moon haiku dedicated to our weblog colleagues.   

– – haiku by Kobayashi Issa, translated by author-poet, professor David G. Lanoue 

 

 

for haiku lover Robert Ambrogi of LawSites

in the harvest moonlight
unruffled, unaffected
scarecrow

 

for Kevin O’Keefe at Real Lawyers Have 

hazy night–
sake is flowing
waterfall and moon

for Jonathan Mayhew at bemshaw swing

on one knee
the moonlight…
frog in the evening

 

  for the long-overdue Stuart Levine at TaxBizLaw

the moon at your feet
look! look!
croaking frog

 

for soloist supreme Carolyn Elefant of MyShingle

 

if only she were here
for me to nag…
tonight’s moon!

 

for the hopeful TBP, Esq. at unbillable hours

departing geese
where will you moon-gaze
tomorrow?

 

for J. Craig Williams at May It Please the Court

a lucky fox
deigns to bark…
hazy moon

 

for Margaret Marks von Transblawg

spooning up soup
and bringing forth
the moon

 

 

for Howard Bashman at How Appealing

scolding
vain man…
the autumn moon

 

  for Matt Homann at the [non]billable hour

 

my hut’s mosquitoes
go out to make a living…
dusk moon

 

 

for the young and restive Insomniac

“Gimme that harvest moon!”

cries the crying
child

 

for Steve Minor at SWVaLawBlog

tonight’s moon–
how many mountains resemble
the ones back home?

 

 for Jeralyn Merritt at TalkLeft

do you shine
so I’ll steal the plum blossom
moon?

for Prof. Lessig at his appropriate weblog

 

the defeated wrestler, too
joins the crowd…
bright moon

 

for Madeleine of Mad Kane

granny comes
drinking her sake…
a moonlit night

 

for Glenn K. Garnes of EsqLawTech

under my bottom
the stone warms up…
moonlit night

for Marcia Oddi of the not-just Indiana Law Blog

holding up
the hazy moon…
willow tree

 

for Genie Tyburski of VirtualChase  

 

harvest moon
on a clear, rainless night
elsewhere!

 

for lawyer-poet >Deborah Sirotkin Butler

 

glimpsing the moon
over my home village…
also brings tears

– click here for over a hundred autumn moon haiku by Kobayashi Issa 
– many thanks to the translator, author-poet, professor David G. Lanoue 

– see our tribute to the October Hunter’s Moon, a/k/a Blood Moon, here.

one-breath pundit  [with update]

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  Yes, like Horace, we know that “Even the worthy Homer sometimes nods.” (cf. A. Pope)

  
  

  But, ethicalEsq is surprised to be forgotten so soon, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell,

  
  

  in their list of links to useful Internet resources on alternative billing, which appears in the current

  
  

  edition of Law Practice Today (Sept. ’04).
  
  
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  Along with LPT, check out our favorite relevant postings, replete with questions, opinions, links:

Update (Sept. 28, 2004):  Maybe this forgetfulness is more Pope [ “Those oft are stratagems which errors seem, Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream”] than Horace.  Dennis Kennedy isn’t accepting my trackback pings from this post.  Let us (and Dennis) know whether you find our treatment “useful.”

 

 

Update (Sept. 30, 2004):  In response to this post, Dennis Kennedy was kind enough yesterday to email me a lengthy explanation for the decision not to include any items from ethicalEsq in the list compiled for  Law Practice Today.   I want to clarify that my reason for wanting this weblog to be included on the LPT link list is the different perspective it brings to the topic of alternative or value billing, as compared

to the cheerleading found in virtually all other materials — which do not tend to deal with legal ethics or reducing legal fees.  Although I did not find Dennis’ explanation to be fully satisfactory, I must note that the Trackback problem at Dennis’ site has been (more than) remedied — thanks, DMK!

 

 

cuckoo
what did you forget?
retracing steps

 

                         

 Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue 

  Master Issa and haikuEsq interrupt your weblogging to remind you to look up and enjoy the Harvest Moon tonight and the next three nights.  We’ll be dedicating a sampling of autumn moon haiku to various weblog friends and colleagues for the next few days (all haiku by master Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa, translated by author-poet, professor David G. Lanoue):

 

for Denise Howell at Bag&Baggage

trying and trying
to grasp the harvest moon–
toddler

 

for Wm. J. Dyer of Beldar fame

aiming their butts
at the moon…
rice field geese

 

 

for Martin Grace at a tort et a travers

harvest moon-gazing
priests, samurai
merchants

 

 

for Fed84 at Crime & Federalism  

the thief
is just as he is…
hazy moon

 

 

 

for friend George Wallace of The Fool in the Forest

harvest moon–
on a stone a teacup
filled with sake

 

for B.J. Grenier at BenefitsBlog

harvest moon–
when my heart’s had its fill
it’s dawn

 

for Ken Lammers at CrimLaw

 

the mountain moon              
gives the blossom thief
light

 

for Jerry Lawson at eLawyerBlog

on the moonlit spider web
an evening
cicada

 

for the non-ephmeral Ernie Svenson 

                                                                                

bright moon–
in a little thicket too
a festival!

 

for UCL, the omni-commenting Uncivil Litigator

 

on the river back home too
no doubt…
moon gazing

 

for Tom Mighell at Inter Alia

which of you owns
that red moon
children?

 

for Evan Schaeffer at Underground Notes etc.

the sake gone
time to buckle down
and moon-gaze

 

  for Ted Frank and Walter Olson at Overlawyered

 

harvest moon–
wherever you are
someone’s annoyed

 

overly helpful–
the harvest moon
eclipse critic

 

for the merciful Scheherazade

 

after renting the house
the first thing: moon gazing
twice

 

 

for Nancy Stinson at StarkCountyLawLib

in the harvest moonlight
unruffled, unaffected
scarecrow

 

  for Rick Klau at tins 

harvest moon–
my lap would be a pillow
if my child were here

 

 

for Prof. Bainbridge at his eponymous weblog 

harvest moon–
the peddler selling
eight cent sake

 

 

for Mr. Firefly at Running with Lawyers

hey boatman
no pissing on the moon
in the waves!

 

for Dennis Kennedy of the snazzy new DMK.com

the Man on the Moon
looks to be about
13

for John F. Kerry:

harvest moon–
going out
going back in

 

for our haiku President George W. Bush

with the moon out
it seems to shrink back…
little mountain

 

for editor-emeritus Prof. Yabut:

on harvest moon night
greeting the moon…
with snores

 

– click here for over a hundred autumn moon haiku by  Kobayashi Issa 

– many thanks to the translator, author-poet, professor David G. Lanoue 

 

 

 

my wardrobe

full of faded clothes

Monday morning

 

 

 

community play

a small boy peeps under

the makeshift curtain

 

 

by Matt Morden  from A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices

in English-Language Haiku  (Jim Kacian, Dee Evetts, eds. Red Moon Press, 2001)  

 

 

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

bathroom

exhaust fan

exhausted

 

                        

                                                              

    [click here for full-color photo-poem] 

 

 

a table for one–

leaves rustle

in the inner courtyard  

 

 

 

first cold night–

smell of hot dust

from the vent

                                                                                  [click here for full-color photo-poem]     

 

 

from Open Window, haiku and photographs by Michael Dylan Welch

 

 

by dagosan: 

 

A.M.

 

scat, sun

clouds, too!

harvest moon comes tonight 

 

P.M.

 

harvest moon

over Wal-Mart —

schlepping groceries    

                                                                    [Sept. 26, 2004] 

 

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  Saratoga Springs, NY, has a fresh approach to choosing a “community novel,” which they hope will be read by the entire City in 2005 — let the community itself choose “a single novel rich enough to sustain invigorating dialogue.”  After starting this Spring with more than 100 titles, ballots from the public have narrowed the list to five novels, with the final Saratoga Reads! title to be chosen in further voting that ends on October 10th.

  
  

  
  

  The final five books are:
  

  Nobody’s Fool, by Richard Russo
  Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
  Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow
  The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
  The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

  
  

  
  

  The public can vote online or at one of several polling stations in town. 

  
  
• 
  
  
  

  Marci Oddi has fascinating coverage at her Indiana Law (we)Blog on the tension between privacy, security and access to public records created by aerial mapping/photography.



• 
  
  
  

    Another TISK! update finds f/k/a Home Alone in Little Conversations” reflecting on bariatrics    Gosh, Jerry, maybe it’s too easy for weblogs to get #1 ratings from Google et al.

one-breath pundit  

md. v. jd?

 

world of pain–
and the cherry blossoms
add to it!

 

                 from Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue  

one-breath pundit

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  I just heard Jennifer Ludden‘s NPR presentation on Tort Reform as a Campaign Issue (audio link,

  
  

  Sept. 25, 2004), billed as a talk with Frank Cross, Michael McCane, and Overlawyered’s Walter Olson

  
  

  on the “link between litigation and the economy.”   I think the “litigation does more good than bad”

  
  

  guys won this skirmish.
  
  
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  If you haven’t followed the sparring at Point of Law on Tort Reform and the Election, I urge you to

  
  

  do so.   Physician Ron Chusid (for Kerry) and Lawyer Ted Frank (for Bush) both have stamina,

  
  

  but no knockout punch.  We recently asked for a better definition of “frivolous lawsuit,” and the meritorious topic was considered by both Ted and Ron.
  
  
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  Check out Lessig vs. Tucker at the Legal Affairs Debate Club, on whether being a Trial Lawyer hurts John Edwards in the election. (via Ernie) — Champion of the underdog or shark in a suit?

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  Three things that pain me but seem to have no cure: (1) the idea that physicians and lawyers are natural enemies; (2) the purchase of the Democratic Party by Trial Lawyers, Inc.; and (3) the Republican Party’s blanket condemnation of “trial lawyers” and simplistic approach to tort reform. 

sunrise

I forget my side

of the argument

 

calmly talking divorce

under the crackle

of fallen leaves

 

by George Swede from  Almost Unseen: Selected Haiku of George Swede 

(Brooks Books, 2000) 

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

no coffee brewing

no scent of love

to wake the hermit

 

                                                       [Sept. 25, 2004]

one-breath pundit