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

David G. Lanoue is the word-wizard behind the hundreds of haiku   

you’ll find at this site by Japanese master Kobayashi Issa.  David’s

own haiku show the multi-dimensional poetic sensibilities that allow

him to breathe life into Issa’s words from two centuries ago.  E.g.,

 

       never more alive

     sparrow in the cat’s

           mouth

 

 

     the old fart

stacks the winter

      kindling

 

 

the cold front
reaches the Deep South
nipple by nipple

credits: “never more” and “old fart” from from: Haiku Guy (Red Moon, 2000)

             “cold front” from World Haiku Ass’n website.

• 
  
  If you’d like to introduce a friend to haiku, David’s
  
  
  novel Haiku Guy is the perfect gift — an adventture
  
  
  with action, romance, time travel, wisdom, and more. 
  

  You can read the first two chapters here. 

 

• 
  
  by dagosan:

a favorite tree

reflected in the river –

made me look again

                                            [Dec. 2, 2004]

one-breath pundit  

 

  B.J. Grenier has an interesting post on Common Law Marriage in PA at

BenefitsBlog.   That reminds me: Where CLM still exists, does calling

your paramour “my fiancee” (for a decade or two) defeat a marriage claim?

 

   Eugene Volokh’s piece on protecting sources — at established news media

and at weblogs — is worth your time.  He suggests a rule and opines that “the

rules should be the same for old media and new, professional and amateur.” Go there.

• 
  
  Less edifying is finding out that some of Prof. V’s readers couldn’t
  
  
  figure out all by themselves what he might have meant by “pronouncing
  
  
  the capital letter in a word.”  I hope the clueless ones are nobody’s
  
  
  lawyer or professor (click here for some examples of its use.

   John Palfrey notes that Merriam-Webster has deemed “blog” to be the

“word of the year.”  As we explained recently, the honor means that “blog”

was looked up online more than any other word this year.  That might just

be because those four letters give absolutely no hint as to what the word

means or its relationship to any prior-existing word or language.  More.

pruned by the antelope’s
jaws…
New Year’s pine

 

                          ISSA, translated by D.G. Lanoue  

 

 

ethicalEsq and skepticalEsq have been far too active around here lately — 

leading to a homepage with far too many words (far too many of which

are cantankerous).   haikuEsq and the Editor promise to keep their cranky

and egotistical alter egoes in check from now on, limiting f/k/a to haiku

and one-breath punditry.  Some recent posts will be deleted or moved

inside, as a demonstration of our commitment.

• 
  
  Nice segue to: The Healing Spirit of Haiku, a new book by physician-psychologist
  
  
  and professor David Rosen and Joel Weishaus, a poet and literary critic, with illustrations
  
  
  by Arthur Okamura.  The book “is a haibun of the psyche, a combination of prose
  
  
  and haiku about a soulful interactive journey that two old friends set out to accomplish
  
  
  together.”  (it’s got a great cover, and you can Look Inside at amazon.com)

p.s. Even the very busy RiskProf has noticed our recent lapse into prolixity.