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

January 20, 2008

2007 winners from Mainichi

Filed under: haijin-haikai news,Haiku or Senryu — David Giacalone @ 10:39 am

The winners of this year’s Mainichi Daily News haiku contest have just been announced — see the 11th Mainichi Haiku Contest (2007) results and commentary. Congratulations to Philippe Bréham (France), who took the First Prize. I’m pleased to see that two of the earliest members of our f/k/a family had honored poems:

chambers pulsing
in the washed-up jellyfish—
waning moon

— Michael Welch (U. S. A.)
2nd Prize, 11th Mainichi Haiku Contest (2007)

. . . …………………………………… . . . .

snow flurries
a childhood friend
reappears

— Peggy Lyles (U. S. A.)
Honorable Mention, 11th Mainichi Haiku Contest (2007)

Déjà-ku scholar Michael Dylan Welch was the second poet to agree to share his haiku at this weblog. Here are a few of his poems that fit my mood and themes this week:

first date
letting her
put snow down my neck

a table for one–
leaves rustle
in the inner courtyard

[photo/poem]

an old woolen sweater
taken yarn by yarn
from the snowbank

………………………. by Michael Welch
“first date” – South by Southwest 10:3; “edge of light: RMA 2003″
“a table for one” & “woolen sweater” – “Open Window” (photos and poems)

LylesRain Three years ago today, we posted our “inaugural” piece on Peggy Willis Lyles. As often, Peggy touches me with the honesty and empathy of her haiku:

bitter wind . . .
the hand that cups the flame
aglow

snowed in
the wedding-ring quilt
lumpy with children

winter night
he patiently untangles
her antique silver chain

wind and rain
the hand I reach for
in the dark

…………………. Peggy Lyles, from To Hear the Rain (Brooks Books, 2002)

In a day or two, we’ll be featuring some of the poems by “our” Carolyn Hall that can be found all this month on Cornell’s Mann Library Daily Haiku page. Please don’t wait for our posting to get over there and enjoy and appreciate a month’s worth of fine haiku by the much-honored Ms. Hall, chosen by Tom Clausen. For example:

a butterfly
so long at my window
summer dusk

fieplace glow
first signs of fraying
in the cane-back rocking chair

………………………………………. by Carolyn Hall

Comments (3)

January 16, 2008

papa g’s night train

Filed under: Haiku or Senryu,viewpoint — David Giacalone @ 8:58 pm

[Jitterbug Stamp] My retired mail-carrier Dad, Arthur P. Giacalone, loved swing music and famously loved to dance. When we went as a family to wedding receptions or other big parties, Papa G. always brought along a change of clothing, so he could shed the damp ones before the last dance with Mama G. [I wrote about Papa G. on his 87th birtday in 2006, and last September, when he and Mama G. celebrated their 60th Anniversary (lots of photos here).]

[big] At his funeral on Monday, one of Dad’s very favorite nieces reminded us that their eyes would meet whenever a band started to play “Night Train,” and then they would jitterbug together like crazy to the delight of all. (Click for jitterbug history, and this fun 1944 instructional video)

jitterbug gene —
dad’s skipped
a generation

………………….. dagosan

Cousin Rose Palazzo’s fond memory of dancing with Uncle Art. got me searching for a video clip of Night Train yesterday, and refreshed my recollection on many dad-and-music-related topics from my childhood. When I learned that Louis Prima did a well-known version of “Night Train,” I smiled broadly — recalling the fun I had with my parents as a (not-yet-jaded, pre-teen) kid, watching the antics of trumpet-playing band leader and “hepcat” Louis Prima and his deadpan, lovely, songstress wife Keely Smith (who can be heard in a 20-minute NPR Fresh Air presentation, from 2002, “Queen of Swing“). As one commentator explains, Italian-American Louis Prima was “one of the few obviously ethnic entertainers who never turned his back on his roots once mainstream success hit.” For example,

“He always revived — to his audience’s delight — Italian novelty numbers [e.g., titles like “Felicia No Capicia” (more),” “Baciagaloop (Makes Love on the Stoop),” “Please No Squeeza Da Banana,” and “Josephina, Please No Leana on the Bell.” ], and much of his performing persona could be traced to the wildly energetic Italian kid who never grew up.”

With much anticipation and satisfaction I located a Prima-Butera Night Train Video version of the song, which had been released on Louis Prima’s “The Wildest!” Album (Capitol Records, 1957), and has an amazing sax solo by Sammy Butera. I don’t think of myself as a swing or jazz fan, but this instrumental made me grin and tap my feet, and immediately recall the great Night Train lyrics (by Lewis C. Simpkins) that dad would occasionally sing — in what was surely my first exposure to an anti-domestic violence theme:

Night train,
That took my baby far away.
Night train,
That took my baby far away.
Tell her
I love her more and more each day.

(Chorus) [“The Wildest!” cover]

My mother said I’d lose her
If I ever did abuse her,
Shoulda listened.

My mother said I’d lose her
If I ever did abuse her,
Shoulda listened.

Now I have learned my lesson
My baby was a blesssin’,
Shoulda listened.

[I plan to click on the Prima video link often, to let Night Train help “bring my daddy back to me.” Listen to Eddie Jefferson’s more optimistic version of the song, in which the night train brings his baby back.]

funeral dirge —
we bury the one
who could carry a tune

……… david giacalone – Frogpond 31:2 (2008) – selected for “white lies: Red Moon Anthology 2008“

Since my arrival in my original hometown of Rochester, New York, on Saturday, I’ve been treading water in the emotional pond formed by losing a parent. Despite a few tearful episodes, it has mostly felt like a soothing communal hot-tub, warmed with the love and affection of family and friends.

Here are a few more poems that came to mind during my 4-hour trip back to Schenectady today on the New York Thruway:

driving home
from papa’s funeral —
thin noon moon half-empty

bequest wish list
a father’s smile
at the top

dad’s empty chair –
mom lets me cook the pasta
al dente

…………………………… dagosan

Here are a few one-breath poems, by members of our f/k/a haijin family, which in one way or another remind me of a man who was sadly short of breath and unable to jitterbug the past couple of decades.

winter woods
seeing myself
in black and white

………………….. by yu chang – Upstate Dim Sum 2005/1

the pinwheel stops
grandpa catches
his breath

………………… by Randy Brooks, from School’s Out (Press Here, 1999)

one of your sighs
has stayed with me
forty years, so far

……………………… by John Stevenson – Upstate Dim Sum (2005/I)

Discovery channel –
an older male vanquished
heads for the hills

within the red wine
a nap in my chair

my wife catches me
picking from our trash
again

letting her
walk all over me
ladybug

without consent
my old sneakers
in the trash

yardwork:
some of the old tire water
on my shoes

the river
full of ice
broken free

……………………. Tom Clausen
“Discovery channel” and “within the red wine” – Upstate Dim Sum (2003/II)
“me wife catches me” – from Upstate Dim Sum 2007/1
“letting her” — being there (Swamp Press, 2005)
“without consent,” “now that I’m over,” and “yardwork” – from Homework (2000)
“the river” Upstate Dim Sum (2005/II)

update (Jan. 17, 2008): f/k/a “Cousin” Ed Markowski knows a lot about family love and loss, and caring for friends. He sent me three poems overnight that belong here in this post:

funeral procession
the silence of the engine
dad tuned last april

winter funeral
a bead of holy water
freezes in mid-air

dad’s funeral
this morning uncle walt
ties my tie

[mama g, 1948]

afterglow (Jan. 18, 2008): That cutie my Dad fell in love with in 1947 loved Glenn Miller, too, and we often heard “Moonlight Serenade” at Casa Giacalone (click for YouTube version), as well as “In the Mood“. Ed Markowski sent us this little gift, which incorporates another of my favorite insects:

moonlit serenade
fireflies appear just beyond
the jitterbugs

…………………………………………. ed markowski

Meanwhile, the rarely-sentimental Prof. Yabut penned this tell-em, and caught me in a weakened condition, so I’m passing it along (with apologies to Groucho Marx):

in the mood
innuendo goes
out the window

afterwords (Jan 21, 2008): Thanks to Gideon at Public Defender Stuff, for including this posting in his stirring 2008 Martin Luther King Edition of Blawg Review [#143].

p.s. A Butterfly Connection: Go here to learn why, from now on, butterflies will remind me of my Dad, and to find a couple dozen butterfly poems by our Honored Guest poets. I’ve uploaded a “butterfly haiku memorial collection for Papa G.,” which is a Word document that you can print from this website, to create a two-sided, trifold brochure. It contains most of the poems found in the butterfly haiku posting.

sunset stroll –
searching snowbanks
for butterflies

……………………………….…………………………… by david giacalone
[in mem., Arthur P. Giacalone; haiga photo by Yu Chang]

Comments (15)

January 11, 2008

called home late: BBS strikes again

Filed under: Book Reviews,Haiku or Senryu,q.s. quickies — David Giacalone @ 1:15 pm

As often happens, real news had a somewhat sobering effect on what started out as a typically irreverent-flippant posting here yesterday at f/k/a. about my increasingly faulty memory. See “Sufferers of Early Onset Alzheimer’s Describe Life with the Disease” (PBS NewsHour, Jan. 10, 2008), and the related NewsHour Insider Forum“Early Onset Alzheimer’s Patients Take Your Questions on Disease” (Jan. 10, 2008). For more information on the October 2007 Early Memory Loss Forum, go here and here. Also of interest (and concern) “Alzheimer’s Has an Effect on Kids, Too: Visits With Ill Relatives Are Sad but Important” (Washington Post, Jan. 8, 2008); “Dementia in More Educated Hits Later But Harder: More schooling delayed disease onset, but decline was more rapid afterward, study finds” (Health Day, October 23, 2007); and check out the Alzheimer’s Association’s Maintain Your Brain page for suggestions and information on keeping mental acuity.

My hopes and empathetic concern go out to all those truly suffering from the serious condition of Early-onset Alzheimer’s and Early Memory Loss, and to their families. Watching my father’s dementia the past few years has been a sad experience. A bemused sense of humor and horror is still about all I can manage for my own situation.

Boomer Braino Syndrome [“BBS”] is not something I’ll ever get used to — despite having experienced, joked, fretted and pontificated about it for several years (see, e.g., our first piece on “peridemenita” and our graying of the bar opus). A few days ago, it dawned on me that I had somehow totally overlooked the wonderful little book called home, by our Honored Guest poet paul m., in our cyber-Monday list of recommended holiday gifts, on November 29, 2007.

fog on the bridge
this small truck
for all our belongings

… by paul m. from called home (Red Moon Press 2006)

We featured five poems from Called Home last May, when we introduced the book, and five more in August, when reporting that Paul’s volume of haiku and senryu received the Third Place prize in the Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Awards for 2007 (for books published in 2006). It has more than one hundred poems and will surely help you or a loved one get through that inevitable post-holiday slump. You can click on the link above or write to Red Moon Press, P.O. Box 2461 Winchester, Virginia 22604-1661, for a copy of called moon, which is available in the USA for $12.00.

I can think of no better way to cap off the holiday season, and welcome the New Year, than sharing five more poems by Paul M. from his fine called home collection. Of course, I apologize heartily to Paul and all our readers for yet another cruel example of BBS-generated agita.

weights reset
in the grandfather clock
morning snow

moving the cow
closer to baby Jesus
yesterday’s snow

the tree still draws water
a calendar
declaring a new year

mid-morning
and the snow is melting . . .
her thinness

snow outside
everyone else rises
to receive the host

winter light
flour, sugar, and the canister
that held dog biscuits

… by paul m. from called home (Red Moon Press 2006)

Meanwhile, I have been unexpectedly and prematurely called home today, to mourn and celebrate the life of a man I loved very much. See “dad inspired some haiku.”

that little grunt
dad always made–
putting on my socks

………………………….. dagosan; photo by Nick DiTucci

frogpond (XXVIII: 2, 2005); inside the mirror: The Red Moon Anthology 2005

Comments (1)

January 8, 2008

the long and short of lawyer films

Filed under: q.s. quickies — David Giacalone @ 7:16 pm

On a sunny day when Spamalot comes to Schenectady (see Gazette photo), along with record-high temperatures, the f/k/a Gang seems especially frantic to get me to step foot outside and avoid this weblog. You’d think that would be easy, now that we’ve sworn off writing about legal ethics (and successfully overcame the temptation to join in the current blawgisphere discussion of billable hours and the status of lawyers in our society). But, alas, nothing ever seems easy or uncomplicated around here.

the morning after –
she says hindsight
is 20/40

……………………………….. dagosan

For example, an email came yesterday from Lisa Solomon, of the humor-vending Billable Hour Company, asking whether writing about a lawyer-ethics video clip [to wit, “Ethical Dropout” at BHC’s new The Video Venue] constitutes prohibited punditry these days at f/k/a. That got me thinking way too hard about politesse, parsing, punchlines, and similar p-words. It also reminded me how much I actually enjoyed, prior to getting broadband access a few months ago, being able to tell friends, “I only have a dial-up modem, so I can’t go to YouTube to marvel at your new fave video.”

Since we watched the whole thing, here is our painfully-honest, mini-review of the 5-minute TVV video “Ethical Dropout“: Didn’t laugh, lust, or learn any legal ethics.

Eventually, I decided that “pointing ain’t punditry” and I remembered — especially after reading about the up-coming truncated version of the Golden Globes — that I’ve been meaning to tell our readers about some interesting sources and resources on “lawyer films.”

Fictional lawyer “Michael Clayton” confronts many ethical issues and personal crises in the critically-acclaimed eponymous film, which is likely to be a big winner at awards shows this year (see Wikipedia for awards, and nominations; and find critic reviews)

So, without undue explanation, explication, nor exegesis, here are some links for lovers and critics of lawyers on film:

highway patrolman –
his leather jacket squeaks
taking the stand
………………………………………………. by barry george

LPOP — The Lawyer and Popular Culture Collection, housed at the U. Texas Tarlton Law Library, brings together information and materials on how the profession is portrayed in the our modern culture. As part of its collection, LPOP owns over 700 featured films and tv series about lawyers — from Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) to Zoot Suit (1981). Click for its alphabetical list. The website also republishes scholarly work such as “Reading/Teaching Lawyer Films,” by Prof. Prof. James R. Elkins (see our prior post on his Legal Studies Forum), Vermont Law Review, Volume 28, Number 4 (2004).

summer day
a seat in the movies
away from others

…………………….. by John Stevenson – Upstate Dim Sum (2004/II)

If you’re serious about the genre of lawyer films, and the discipline/past-time of legal film criticism, you will want to read the Winter 2007 edition of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, which presents the “Symposium: Access to Justice: Law and Popular Culture“( Vol. 40, No. 2, 2007). You’ll find a summary of the symposium submissions in an Introduction by Prof. John T. Nockleby (at 539). The table of contents contains links to articles such as:

TRUTH TALES AND TRIAL FILMS, by Jessica Silbey, at 551
WE LOST IT AT THE MOVIES: THE RULE OF LAW GOES FROM WASHINGTON TO HOLLYWOOD AND BACK AGAIN, by Susan Bandes, at 621
POPULAR CULTURE AND THE ADVERSARY SYSTEM, by Michael Asimow, at 653
SUPER SIZE ME AND THE CONUNDRUM OF RACE/ETHNICITY, GENDER, AND CLASS FOR THE CONTEMPORARY LAW-GENRE DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER, by Regina Austin, at 687
A MANIFESTO FOR VISUAL LEGAL REALISM, by Richard K. Sherwin, at 719
POPULAR CULTURE, LEGAL FILMS, AND LEGAL FILM CRITICS, by James R. Elkins, at 745

Prof. Elkins has taught a course on “Lawyers and Film” for many years at U. West Virginia law school. In the course he asks some important questions:

What can we learn about ourselves as lawyers from watching lawyer films?

If we are to learn something about ourselves as lawyers from films, what elements of the films–story, narrative, drama, plot, character portrayal, lawyer rhetoric, mythology, visual presentation, criticism–are of particular interest to us as lawyers?

How are the ideals associated with a life in law portrayed in film? What critical views and interpretations of law, lawyers, and lawyering are presented in film?

How are we to “read” the social, political, and cultural messages we associate with lawyer films?

In his symposium article, Elkins challenges the “reality critique”— the supposition by some legal scholars that law as portrayed on screen inaccurately represents law, lawyers, or the “legal system.” He also claims that “we know far less about the effects of popular culture on law and lawyering than we would like to think we do.”

Although I’m admitting sloth and avoiding commentary these days, I’d like to hear what blawggers — such as Anne Reed at Deliberations, Dan Solove at Law & Humanities Blog and Concurring Opinions, Anne Skove at Court-o-Rama, and Scott G-r-e-e-n-f-i-e-l-d of Simple Justice — have to say about some of the issues raised by Jim Elkins:

• Are jurors “influenced” by popular culture representations
of law and lawyers?
• Do lawyers and judges think that jurors are being influenced
by popular culture representations?
• How does the influence of popular culture representations
change the legal system?

update (Jan. 10, 2008): Scott G. at Simple Justice has reacted to our plea above with a little punt and promise of his own. And, Anne Skove at Court-o-rama bit at our bait with inciteful, entertaining insights “as seen on TV” (Jan. 10, 2008) that you don’t want to miss.

TVV: JDTube — Finally, I want to point you all to The Video Venue, brought to you by The Billable Hour Co. As Lisa Solomon has explained, “TVV features video clips by, for, and about lawyers, law students, and legal professionals.” Indeed, it “aggregates funny law-related videos from various web video sites (including YouTube, Revver and Google Video, among others). Videos are grouped into playlists organized by topic (such as law school, jury duty, court reporters and paralegals), practice area (such as contracts, torts and criminal law) and type of video (such as music, movie clips and commercials).” Site visitors can also create their own playlists to personalize their viewing experience, and upload their own videos (subject to review for appropriateness and quality by the site owner).

To help launch the new site, they’ve got a contest, with the winner of a $50 Billable Hour Company gift certificate to be chosen at random: “The Video Venue, a new niche video website featuring humorous law-related videos, is hosting a contest to name the funniest law-related video on the web. Contestants can enter by visiting www.video.thebillablehour.com and posting a video, or reviewing, commenting or tagging any video already on the site, which aggregates funny law-related videos from various web sites, and also allows visitors to upload their own videos.

As you know, we’re curmudgeons around here, who’ve probably never called anything “hilarious” nor promised our readers lots of yuks. We don’t spend time browsing at humor sites, or clicking randomly on video clips. So, we’re not going to rate The Video Venue. We’ve told you enough to decide whether you want to check it out. If you find TVV worthwhile, please let us know.

Warning & Disclaimer: BHC’s Mark Solomon notes that “So many of the law-related videos on sites like YouTube just bash lawyers.” He then observes that “lawyers and legal professionals appreciate content . . . and products . . . that find humor in the law without attacking lawyers. That’s what TVV is all about.”

wind-beaten marque
saying only
“Coming Soon”

matinee
the summer sun
under the exit door

…………. by John Stevenson
“wind-beaten marquee” – Some of the Silence (1999)
“matinee” – Quiet Enough (Red Moon Press, 2004)

p.s. For more on lawyer films, see our discussion of the “Court TV’s 15 Most Memorable Movie Lawyers” (Hollywood Heat, by Daniel Green, May 12, 2005.)

Elvis’ birthday —
Little Sister sneaks out
to the cineplex

……………………… dagosan [Happy Anniversary to Ed and Laurice Markowski! Click for Elvis Presley doing “Little Sister” at YouTube.com]

drive in movie…
opening our eyes
during the love scene

……………………………………………….. ed markowski

Comments (4)

January 6, 2008

another winner from Legal Studies Forum

Filed under: Haiku or Senryu,q.s. quickies — David Giacalone @ 1:37 pm

Thanks to the New York Times, you don’t need f/k/a to tell you this morning about dissatisfaction and malaise within the legal profession. See “The Falling-Down Professions,” by Alex Williams (Jan. 6, 2008), for a discussion of the reduced prestige and status of lawyers (and doctors, too), which states:

“In a culture that prizes risk and outsize reward — where professional heroes are college dropouts with billion-dollar Web sites — some doctors and lawyers feel they have slipped a notch in social status, drifting toward the safe-and-staid realm of dentists and accountants. It’s not just because the professions have changed, but also because the standards of what makes a prestigious career have changed.”

That lets me focus instead, with alacrity, on The Legal Studies Forum. (For out last word on the ailing lawyer psyche, see “now that’s depressing,” Dec. 17, 2007)

morning shadows—
the gunslingers wait
for high noon

…………………….. David Giacalone, Legal Studies Forum (Vol. XXXII, No. 1. 2008). Click for original at HaigaOnline, photo by Arthur Giacalone, JD.

We’ve been singing the praises of the Legal Studies Forum for almost four years. As LSF tells us, it was “established by the American Legal Studies Association to promote humanistic, critical, trans-disciplinary legal studies.” At the core of LSF, you will find its Editor, Prof. James R. Elkins, of the West Virginia University’s College of Law, who has done more than any academic or practitioner to remind the world of the connection between lawyers and poetry, first with his groundbreaking, comprehensive website project Stangers to Us All, and then through the vehicle of the Legal Studies Forum. It was the poetry connection that brought f/k/a to the attention of Jim Elkins and vice-versa.

low gray sky —
an afghan warming
on the radiator

……………………………….. david giacalone – Legal Studies Forum Vol. XXX (2006); The Heron’s Nest (VIII: 2, June 2006)

“Off the Record,” Vol. 28 of the Legal Studies Forum (2004) was the milestone 700-page anthology of poetry by sixty-six currently-active lawyer-poets. As we said when it was first published, Off the Record is “not filled with poetry about law, lawyers, and the legal world,” but instead contains poetry by poets who happen to have been educated and trained as lawyers. The twenty-page Introduction by Prof. Elkins is a strong reminder that there is nothing inconsistent about the lawyer and the poet coming together in one man or woman. It’s also a rousing argument that every school of law must nurture a practice of law that is enfused with “the poet’s sensibilities, awareness, introspection, and care for the things and the particulars of the world.”

blue sky
behind bare branches
year-end bonus

storm alert
every kind of cloud
in one sky

………………………….. David A. Giacalone – Legal Studies Forum XXIX:1 (2005)

“Intelligible Hues,” Legal Studies Forum Vol. 29 No. 1 (2005), presented about 300 pages of poetry by people with law degrees, along with interviews and essays about lawyers and poetry (see our posting, May 6, 2005).

harvest moon
the long pull
of faraway children

quiet rain
the deeper quiet
of uncut roses

…………………… roberta beary – Legal Studies Forum XXX (2006)

“harvest moon” – The Heron’s Nest
“quiet rain” – Paperclips (Press Here 2001)

“Lawyers & Poets,” Legal Studies Forum Vol. 30 (2006; cover), came out in early 2006 and has over 500 pages of poetry from more than sixty living poets (see our posting from March 2006).

alone at sunset
i pick a pair
of faded daylilies

summer solstice
the insomniac
waits for dawn

before
the morning rush—
the whiteness of last night’s snow

…………………….. david giacalone – Legal Studies Forum (Vol. XXXII, No. 1. 2008)

With “A Day’s Work Done,” Legal Studies Forum Vol. 32 (No. 1, January 2008), Prof. Elkins continues to promote lawyer-created poetry (plus short stories and essays), with another winning collection, that contains more than 300 pages of poems by JDs. In addition to generously presenting a few of my own poems (reproduced above), “A Day’s Work Done,” again features the work of our much-honored friend, Washington-DC attorney-poet Roberta Beary. Along with two of her haiku, LSF 32 presents a ku-less version of After Work, which was originally published in Simply Haiku as haibun, but is reborn in LSF as free verse. Volume 32 also has haiku and other poetry by Indian Law expert and appellate judge Frank Pommersheim, and several haiku from Jay Bryan, who has been instrumental in promoting poetry in his home town of Carrboro, North Carolina, and whose professional experience [“an attorney, mediator and guardian ad litem specializing in family and juvenile law”] sounds a lot like the second half of my legal career.

just enough moon
for this firefly to land
on my finger

…………………………. by roberta beary, LSF Vol. 32 (2008),
orig. pub. Jiyu-Katari (Free Talking; Ito En Ltd. 2007)

I’m pleased to remind our readers again that the poetry collections published in prior editions of Legal Studies Forum have been reproduced online at the U. Texas Tarlton Law Library’s E-text pages (and can be reached using the various hyperlinks above). But, the Dedication in Volume 32 of LSF by Prof. Elkins, to trial lawyer Hardy Parkerson, of Lake Shore, Louisiana, in gratitude for his continued extraordinary financial contributions to Legal Studies Forum, is a very good reminder that this unique publication needs and deserves the support of subscribers who honor and appreciate its mission.

The Legal Studies Forum (ISSN: 0894-5993) publishes two issues a year, with occasional supplements. Its editorial and business offices are at College of Law, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6130. You can Contact Professor Elkins directly to subscribe to Legal Studies Forum.

As we’ve pointed out before, Prof. Elkins puts it so well: “If we think literature matters, . . . then the best education of a lawyer remains an education in skills practiced as an art, an occupational poetics of the real.” The pundit in me wants to ponder the state of our profession, as discussed in this morning’s NYT. The person-poet in me, is going to head outside to see whether any new snowmen appeared on my block since I checked late last night.

justice center –
even the courtroom Bible
has a number

eyeing his wrinkled shirt
from the night in question –
the defendant

tagging along
with an ice cream cone
the senior partner

……………………………….. by Barry George, JD

Comments (2)

January 4, 2008

we focus on Mainichi Haiku (and not my Main Man’s Iowa Coup)

Filed under: Haiku or Senryu,q.s. quickies — David Giacalone @ 11:56 am

The f/k/a Gang is presented this morning with our first real test since swearing off political punditry on Christmas Eve 2007. As Judgment Junkies trying to control our Advice Addiction, we’re directly faced with an all-important question:

Did we bite off more than we can eschew, when promising to end all commentary on politics and legal ethics at this weblog?

After Barack Obama’s victory last night in the Iowa caucuses [see the Senator’s Victory Speech (Jan. 3, 2007), and David Brooks’ column “Two Earthquakes” (New York Times, Jan. 4, 2007)], we are tempted indeed to make distinctions between positive and negative punditry, or between reporting and commenting on the news. We confess to reviewing some of our prior coverage of Sen. Obama since his amazing speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention — “obama, o mama!” (July 27, 2007); like discussion of Obama on antitrust and immigration; and even our disappointing “inquiry to Obama on Tort Reform” (Aug. 4, 2004). And, we mused over his role in helping to create a Democratic morality and majority. But, we’ve never been able to have just one drink at the punditry bar, so I just put the cork back on that bottle of opine wine.

All we”re going to “say” about the historic political news last night out of Iowa, then, is a reprise of the rather inadequate (but enthusiastic) senryu poem we dashed off on July 27, 2007, after witnessing our first Barack Obama speech:

the skinny guy’s
a heavyweight –
they’re cheering for a lawyer!

……………………………………………..by dagosan, 07-27-04

Devoid of punditry, what the heck will the f/k/a Gang post about as we start the New Year? Good question. A heads-up a couple days ago from outside frozen Detroit by our friend Ed Markowski reminded me of a very good place to start 2008: the monthly selection of Haiku in English published in Japan by Mainichi Daily News. Around the first of each month, you’ll find over a dozen previously published haiku — many of them very fine — from around the world at the Mainichi site. Most months, one or more the selected poems will be by members of our f/k/a family of Honored Guests Poets.

I ‘m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I am promising myself to visit the Mainichi haiku webpage early each month in 2008, to find poems worth sharing with our f/k/a readers. Here are haiku by our Honored Guests from the past few months:

– from January 2008 (No. 703)

spring flu —
a dream of swimming
up through new mud

………………………… by jim kacian

1 a.m.
the light in an office
on the 33rd floor

……………………………. by ed markowki

no verdict
the carpenter’s hand
melts windowfrost

………………………….. peggy willis lyles

from December 2007 (No. 702)

light of the half moon
I see my neighbors
are adding a room

…………………………………. john stevenson

snow covering things
we see every day —
the fortune left in the cookie

……………………………………………… gary hotham (From “Missed Appointment,” Modest Proposal Chapbooks, Pittsburgh, PA, USA)

from November 2007 (No. 701)