Haiku by Don Taco

Apropos of nothing, 

as is so often the case. 

A Liberal Arts education is its own reward.

 Allow me to wax analytical for a moment about my current favorite haiku, just for my own amusement, having recently stumbled upon it again, a form that many believe they grasp because they can count syllables, a belief I would equate to saying you understood a book you read because you remember the color of the cover, and, in fact, many of these people can't even count correctly in the first place, and fewer yet realize that the syllable count is nothing more than a poor attempt to translate this particular poetic form across a serious language barrier. But, hey, most of these people can't compose, rhyme, and scan a proper limerick, either, and that IS a simple form in their native language. 

 "Parody is easy, scansion is difficult." 

 Be that as it may.

 Your bangs are too short.

 Polar icecaps are melting. 

 Elvis is still dead.

 Immediately, I think, we are struck by the author's gloomy outlook. Does he dwell in a Murphy's Law universe where the worst that can happen will and has? Things are tough all over. Life sucks, then you die. Nothing positive or cheerful is present in these brief but clear images. Note that each line tersely presents a complete and definite thought, both visual and cerebral, begging the reader to make a connection between them. 

 Note also how the images beg the reader to cast about for allusions, associations, and connections to their own experience, a characteristic of all good poetry but particularly important to the sparse haiku form. Note, particularly, how the vision moves from the personal to the global to the cosmic, or cosmological, if you prefer. 

 In this, I think, the true beauty lies. Is the author making light of your troubles by trumping them with greater and greater issues? Is he illustrating that your troubles are reflected by the cosmos no matter at what scale you choose to examine it? Is he professing hopelessness on all fronts, or could he be saying that the closer to home the issue is, the more control you have over it? Impossible to say. Food for thought.

 Thanks for listening.