Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Haiku Monday Kudos: Memory

Having peaked at Monday night's reception with the wine, I am neither hammered nor hungover at the moment.  However, I did get a text late last night from a guy I had one date with this winter.  Clearly, he was texting with intent to Wiener.  Really?  


After I kind of liked you, and you didn't even kiss me or ask me out again?  Bitch, please!  Speaking of memory: I have a loooong one!


But, I digress.


I was so impressed with the wit and poignancy of your entries!  Not to mention the fecundity that some of you showed!


Carl:  I have come to expect your haiku cocktails full of wit with a splash of wry.  (I didn't make that up: I read it somewhere!)  This week was no exception.  Nice use of "presbyopia."


As the time goes by
Presbyopia and memory loss
Successful marriage 





Troll, if they made a sitcom out of CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, you would be the forest-dwelling next-door-neighbor, dispensing primordial advice.  Your entry was assured and impeccable:


Sleeping dog shudders.
Relax. That dream-beast you fear?
Long ago extinct. 



The next haiku reflected a common theme among the entries: the power of memory (and its void) to help us keep moving through life.  I loved the phrase "big swaths gone."  What made this a winner for me was the elegant bewilderment of the final phrase "that left scars, somewhere.


This week's winner is the CSAR.


Childhood: Big swaths gone.
Void protects from sights and sounds
That left scars, somewhere. 



Csar, you will recieve a custom-made CD from my private collection of music, sure to stir up memories.


Honorable mention to Fishy for beautifully covering the most themes and to Kym for her haiku featuring CATS' Gryselda.  


Thanks for playing!  It was an honor to host.



12 comments:

  1. Congratulations Czar !
    I think you could have written the winning haiku for one of my sibs who has huge childhood memory voids.

    Troll,
    You know I loved yours.
    Klever Karl's too!
    Actually, they were all good this week.

    Fleur,
    Whew! Fine job. I would not have wanted the judging duties this week. Great themes beget great haikus.

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  2. Good evening Fleur,

    Congratulations Czar! Yours tickled a few synapses of my own.

    Fleur, Always a pleasure to have you host. Thank you for the honorable mention. I agree, you avoid any Wieners, You can. Don't toast them, roast them

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  3. Thanks guys. This week's entries were tough. I do love hosting!

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  4. Humbled and puzzled. Every day's a surprise. Thanks, Fleur.

    I'll host and judge next week. Is it Thursday already? I'm mulling over two themes, and I'll post an announcement by the weekend. I trust that Haiku Central, the TrollStroll, will also reinforce.

    Master Troll, I guess you can check my blog for the theme. Or I can email it to you, if you want to send me a trollish email address. Mine's landondemand@bvunet.net.

    I promise that my announcement and judging will be nowhere near as long-winded as my previous attempt.

    PS: "Intent to Weiner"? Fleur, you're living an interesting life. The juxtaposition of that phrase with "Speaking of memory: I have a loooong one!" is more than a bit disturbing.

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  5. "Intent to Wiener?" Priceless. I hope that permanently ends up in the lexicon.

    Congrats to Señor Czar! That final line was, indeed, very, very good—poignant and ironic, and maybe a tad snarky, given today's propensity to air our traumatic dirty laundry?

    Thanks so much for hosting and judging, Fleur. Great job!

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  6. Moi, that's a very interesting take on Csar's last line. I read it as straighforward and unexpectedly vulnerable. I see what you are saying. I would like to ask the Csar to clarify, but you know how inscrutable he is!

    Csar, my life is ridiculous. It is only my ability to provide occasional entertainment in the telling of it that redeems it.

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  7. It's a PoMo world. After Aunty's analysis of my funny-bone haiku, I'm convinced it's whatever the reader grabs from it.

    For me, I can guarantee that anything I write has exactly one level of meaning. Beyond that we are delving into the realm of pure accident.

    Theme for next week is now posted.

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  8. Oh my gracious, hard choices this week, Fleurdeleo. But ya done well.

    CONGRATULATIONS one level Czar...."delving into the realm of pure accident". Hmmmn....I some times wonder if it IS accident? A snip from a beginner semiotics page:

    "A text is an assemblage of signs (such as words, images, sounds and/or gestures) constructed (and interpreted) with reference to the conventions associated with a genre and in a particular medium of communication."

    I does apologize fer peering too far into an' beyond yore Funny Bone entry, Czar. Reckon the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, an' Haiku meanings depend as much the filter the listener brings as it do on the original intent the writer wanted to communicate. Like art--stand around an' listen to folks "see" in the art far more than the artist meant to put in the piece. Oh we's funny creatures.

    Thanky Fleur!!

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  9. No apologies, necessary, Aunty. If people want to make me out to be far, far smarter than I am, I don't see how that's a bad thing. My frame of reference is very small. I guess I need to rely more on belles like you and Fleur and Moi to figure it all out.

    And then, I guess, there's the collective unconscious and the akashic records. I'd say I'm just a medium, but these days I know I'm tending much more toward XXL.

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  10. He is a stitch for sure. And, and someone close to us has said, "he is a GENIOUS and a GIANT!"

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  11. Hell, he'll say that about anybody.

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