Haiku Obsessed

  Writing Wednesday is a place for me to write whatever I want to write.    

    

    Have you heard of haiku?  Maybe you know it is Japanese in origin, that it has three lines, that each line has a certain number of syllables(5-7-5), and that they it is traditionally about nature. Sure these  poems that originated in the 1600s would seem to be just about painting a picture in one breath about some nature scene, but in reality the new haiku is whatever you want it to be about. 

    I was first introduced to haiku through the Central Utah Writing Project and BYU English Professor, Chris Crowe.  He is a master of the haiku, having written an entire novel in haiku, but his most popular among the CUWPers(those who are members of the Central Utah Writing Project) is his Zombie Haiku. I hope one day he will publish them and all of us can enjoy them.  

    I do not write much zombie haiku but I do love writing haiku because it is short and I can write them even when tending to all of my children's needs, like the million times a day they ask for juice or snacks.  Not that I don't love helping with those needs, it can just sometimes interrupt the writing process.

    Anyway, here are a few of my favorite Haikus that I have written recently.  Feel free to comment by writing your own haiku, I would love to read what you can come up with.

Correlation

With COVID-19

No toilet paper or food

Good! Correlation!

Ruining My Life

Coronavirus

Cancel, cancel everything!

You’re ruining my life.

Always Stealing

Whose honey is this?

Honey Badger never asks;

He’s always stealing.

My Happy Place

Splish Splash splish splash splish

Relaxing moving water

This, my happy place.

Reuben at the Beach

Bucket hat; smooth cast

A checkered, button-up shirt

Reuben at the beach

Zarah at the Beach

Wet seat of her shorts

Pyramids, casting, and songs

Zarah's at the beach

Ellis at the Beach

Piles rocks in carns

Then heaving the at boulders

Ellis at the beach

My Day at the Beach

Mirrored sunglasses

Pen strokes writing poetry

My day at the beach

Cling to Every Moment

Thinking I'll forget

I cling to every moment

Babies do not keep.

Peace in Paradise

Cotton candy clouds

Marinate about palm trees

Peace in Paradise.

Now...seriously....write me some haiku, people!

We are all Poets

Write me some haiku

It is easy if you try

We are all poets

    

The Pen is Mightier Than The Sword: A Low Tech Love Affair

   Tech Tuesday is a place for all things technology.  Here we will discuss both low tech and high tech thing-a-ma-jigs.

    

    I am a pen addict.  I collect them like some people collect coins, except I am really particular about what kind of pen I collect.  (I guess there is some particular coin collector out there only looking for pennies, what a weirdo.)

   

Jinhao 321 Fountain Pen
(I have three of these pens: black, red and yellow)

    I love fountain pens.  I have three of them and I even have ink bottles to refill them. There is just something about dipping the tip into the ink and puling up to fill the cartridge.  You can buy pre-filled cartridges, but what fun is in that? I love that fountain pens are thin tipped because I tend to write very small and very quickly(I lose my thoughts and to avoid the loss I must rush).  

   

Happy Day Korean Pens
(can still be purchased on Amazon)

    I bought some Korean pens that I really loved on Amazon a few years ago.  The main reason for the purchase was because the pens were thinner tipped than any pen in the U.S. at a very thin .3mm.

    You may or may not be a pen nerd like me, so you may or may not know that pens come in different tip measurements.  The smaller the number the thinner the tip.  In America, our pen tips are typically .7mm or .5mm,  .5mm are okay for me, but the .3mm Korean pens were a game changer.  Fountain pens come pretty close to the .3 so I write with them a lot.

   

A close 2nd The Pilot G2 

    I also have a few name brand pens that I gravitate to.  At work, it is hard to carry around my fancy fountains, so I resort to mainstream store bought ones.  Cheap Bic pens are not a preference, in fact, ballpoint pens of any brand are just meh to me.  I love the G2 Gel Pens by Pilot.  Gel pens often write smoother and Pilots are top of the line, in my opinion.  

   

The Paper Mate Flair

    The other mainstream pen I have always liked is the Paper Mate Felt Tip.  Currently I have about six black .7mm Paper Mate felt-tips.  They were on sale and I have a weakness both for pens(obviously) and for sales.  (By the way: I just spent about 10 minutes looking for thinner Paper Mate pens, I found that they have an ultra-fine felt tip that is .4mm.   Somebody may be spending ten dollars on eight new pens today.  I think I may have a problem.)

    I get it, some people may just think a pen is a pen and any pen will get the job done, but for me pens are much more significant.  The pen is what takes my ideas from a neurological spark to a tangible symbol on a piece of paper.  I want that tangible symbol to look a certain way.  I also want to feel a certain bit of feedback from the paper as I write down those neurological sparks. (Don't even get me started with paper.  That is an entirely different post. )