# Do people really not get what a haiku is? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016 "2013-02-11T20:42:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![El\_Burro\_Buenmozo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@El\_Burro\_Buenmozo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Burro_Buenmozo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/41 "2013-02-13T05:22:32Z")
Regretful sunrise Waking once more beside her I gotta go now and Oh flaming anus Will you give me no respite Fucking hemorrhoids ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/42 "2013-02-13T05:24:49Z")
OK, so it’s supposed to be about nature: The possum got hit It is still warm and not stiff Plug in the crock pot ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/43 "2013-02-13T13:51:42Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I get an Issa haiku every day in the mail, and I find it quite meditative… My favorite of Issa’s haikus: Never forget: we walk on hell, gazing at flowers. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/44 "2013-02-13T14:30:05Z")
That was cool uh huh When we killed that frog uh huh It won’t croak again –Master Butt-Head ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/45 "2013-02-13T14:55:07Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > That may be the funniest thing I’ve ever read on the Dope. The absurdity just tickles me so. The first kid, that was weird. I mean, I gave him materials on haiku and age appropriate materials on the Holocaust. The second kid… wait, this is an actual assignment? The third and fourth kid it just got bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/46 "2013-02-13T15:11:49Z")
“A proper haiku is all about the spacing” by Henry Gibson [that reference being probably a tad on the ‘dated’ sign for most] ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/47 "2013-02-13T15:16:47Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > “A proper haiku > is all about the spacing” > > by Henry Gibson > [that reference being probably a tad on the ‘dated’ sign for most] Here’s one even more dated, but arguably relevant > [@](#): > > LEONINE, adj. Unlike a menagerie lion. Leonine verses are those in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end, as in this famous passage from Bella Peeler Silcox: > > The electric light invades the dunnest deep of Hades. > Cries Pluto, 'twixt his snores: “O tempora! O mores!” > > It should be explained that Mrs. Silcox does not undertake to teach pronunciation of the Greek and Latin tongues. \*\*Leonine verses are so called in honor of a poet named Leo, whom prosodists appear to find a pleasure in believing to have been the first to discover that a rhyming couplet could be run into a single line. \*\* – Ambrose Bierce “Devil’s Dictionary” ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/48 "2013-02-13T19:49:01Z")
A tautology Mathematical image Eschew the Escher. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/49 "2013-02-13T20:06:43Z")
Philadelphia poet Charlie O’hay would do _haikuicides_: It’s not high enough! The people below shouted The crowd. Wrong again. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/50 "2013-02-13T20:09:20Z")
Summer Cumming is the promise of a heat soon intolerable. Man and nature. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/51 "2013-02-13T20:11:14Z")
Summer Cumming Is a porn actresses’ name So it seems to me. ---
**Author:** ![Deegeea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Deegeea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deegeea)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/52 "2013-02-13T20:11:37Z")
A vigil of trees Leaf-bare by the fire-break camp Where the fallen burned ^^ I don’t think I ever had to write a Holocaust haiku in school. I am very glad. But I could’ve done it without going to the library =D I can easily believe it, though. Some English and Language Arts teachers are excellent, others can’t tell a diary from a novel from a play, much less understand what subject matter is suitable in Haiku. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/53 "2013-02-13T20:28:57Z")
Radio teapot Dirt tunnel in the barracks “Schultz, you idiot!” ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/54 "2013-02-13T22:19:43Z")
A million times six Render my poesy jejune. Do I win a prize? ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/55 "2013-02-14T00:51:09Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I once had several kids in a row come to the library needing help because they had to write haikus about the Holocaust. Way to combine two required topics, teacher. A haikaust, oh my. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/56 "2013-02-14T17:54:19Z")
Trying to think of well-known catchphrases that can be expressed as haiku. The closest I’ve come so far is: NIAGARA FALLS!!! Slowly I turned. Step by step. Inch by inch. Then I… ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/57 "2013-02-14T18:45:46Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > A million times six > Render my poesy jejune. > Do I win a prize? In endless silence A people slain unjustly Cry out for justice. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016/58 "2013-02-14T19:33:45Z")
The Niagra Falls, A plume of glorious mist! Niagra gets up. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-not-get-what-a-haiku-is/650016.md?page=2)