It’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and as we did last year, the f/k/a Gang re-commits to a Day of Service in his honor, as well as beginning “40 Days of Nonviolence: Building the Beloved Community.” Other f/k/a MLK Day themes that deserve a repise:
- “injustice anywhere” is indeed a threat to justice everywhere. See Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail
- it takes “a dream plus courage” – slacktivists need not apply
- all of us who are responsible for the operation of our legal and judicial system (that’s every American, but especially the legal profession) can use the pro-se/self-help-law movement to help ensure that wealth is no longer the key to the courthouse and that our justice system fairly serves every American.
Martin Luther King Day…
the weight of ice
on a magnolia branch
. . . by ed markowski
Martin Luther King Day –
the kid says it’s too cold
to march. ……………… . by dagosan
[Don’t forget the 2008 Martin Luther King Day Edition of Blawg Review [#143].]
The winners of this year’s 
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Three years ago today, we posted our 
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With much anticipation and satisfaction I located a 
[I plan to click on the Prima 
Here are a few more poems that came to mind during my 4-hour trip back to Schenectady today on the New York Thruway:
[mama g, 1948]
by 
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 “
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 “
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 “
We’ve been 
“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 
“Intelligible Hues,” 
“Lawyers & Poets,” 
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 
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 
The f/k/a Gang is presented this morning with our first real test since 
from 
………………………………….. yu chang
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A 
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The Beary Anchovy example seems to me to be a great teaching tool: an example that reminds us that the best haiku and senryu do not merely embody an interesting notion written in 17 syllables or less. The challenge of haiku — the task in crafting the highest quality haiku, at least as it has been practiced over the past few decades by those writing in the English language — is to share an experienced moment of insight, awe or heightened awareness and connection, by showing not telling.
Yes, the original poem was almost this loaded and awkward (and in fact read like a sentence written on three lines, and actually ended with a period).
As I encounter tell-ems in high places, I will probably craft more anchovy parodies, so watch this space for updates. Of course, I’d much prefer that haiku poets and editors heed my plea from last May:
Almost lost in the pile of Christmas packages that arrived at my door last week was a thick envelope that helps prove the old saw “better late then never.” It contained a copy of “flower of another country: the 
As expected, most of our f/k/a Honored Guests participated in this year’s HSA Members’ Anthology. Here, in alphabetical order, are the 19 poems submitted by the f/k/a family and selected by the editors of flower of another country:
Thanks to a thoughtful haijin friend, one present under dagosan’s Christmas Tree was “
Nine of the 53 poets featured in Lanterns are 
Tonight I might just be putting the Curmudge into Christmas, and the grin into 
Elfin Fun: This is the time of year to think about friends old and new, and wish you could be lots of places at once (often, not where you actually are). Thanks to my First Niece (
– Elf, I Need Somebody! Speaking of snow and friends, see/hear 
Recalling special moments with friends, renewing old acquaintances, and catching up on their news, are some of the best things about the Holiday Season. In the haiku community, the recently published anthology from Red Moon Press called 
It’s not often these days that I find myself thinking “this haiku book isn’t big enough.” But, that’s definitely my response to echoes 1. Three poems each from the 70 New Resonance Poets is simply not enough. I know haiku publishers have to worry about budgets, but echoes 1 would have been far more satisfying for me, if each of these poets got a two-page spread, featuring a half dozen poems or more. Or, at the very least, another poem was squeezed in and the Christmas Letter-esque litany of achievements shortened or moved to an appendix. Despite that traditional family-holiday gripe, I say from the heart that 
The 
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For more holiday spirit, don’t forget the f/k/a 
Holiday spirits are put to the test in mid-December at family courts across the nation, as divorced or separated parents battle over how and where their children spend various portions of the holiday season. While serving as law guardian for many children caught in the middle of such disputes, I saw how often the parents placed their own emotional/ego needs ahead of the needs of the children — and, how often lawyers made things worse by stoking the yuletide fires. The 
Here are my own 
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