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Baseball Haiku
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 2:30 pm
by tallguy
No, don't worry, I'm not composing these myself. I have a book from a work colleague that has not yet gone to press, and thought I would share a basbeall haiku a day until I have to leave for Oregon. I could keep on going after that of course, but I want you all to at least know I'm gone, after all, whether you care or not!
Anyway, according to this book the earliest known baseball haiku is by the fourth "great master", Masaoka Shiki, written in 1890, when he was 23, and apparently quite the player. Here it is:
Spring breeze
this grassy field makes me
want to play catch
Not perhaps the best one to start things off with, except that it was the first baseball haiku ever written!
Subsequent posts will not include much detail beyond the haiku themselves. Unless I feel like it.
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:10 pm
by TheLegend
leaving? oregon? what?
Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:30 am
by tallguy
downpour
windswept spray blows across
the outfield
- Cor van den Heuvel
Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 12:01 pm
by Baseball=Life
terrible, terrible
Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 12:10 pm
by tallguy
Philistine!
Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:33 pm
by tallguy
I'm off for an interview in Oregon, so haikus will resume on Monday.
Whether you like it or not, bitches!
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:08 pm
by Blancito21
Good luck Inglaterrano!! (Englishman in Spanish)
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:51 am
by tallguy
empty baseball field
a dandelion seed floats through
the strike zone
-George Swede
Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:19 pm
by tallguy
country field
home run rolling
past the headstones
-Bill Pauly
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:42 am
by tallguy
August heat
umpire and manager
nose to nose
-Michael Fessler
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:18 am
by Baseball=Life
What the fuck, isn't there supposed to be some consistency in terms of number of syllables in these fucking things?
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:03 pm
by Blancito21
I believe the syllable breakdown by line is 3-7-3.
The only one that is correct is the last one.
That's why Westerners (re: Americans) shouldn't attempt Eastern Art.
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:38 pm
by tallguy
All the haiku are "correct", inasmuch as poetry cannot be "incorrect".
OK, here's the short version, for those who can't be bothered to use Wikipedia.
In Japanese, yes, there are quite well-respected rules, such as the 5-7-5 sequence, or at the very least, a total of 17 syllables. There are certain quirks to the language that makes that exact combination of syllables very beautiful, and easy to remember, but those quirks are not present in English. (Or American, hehe!)
But, in English you can say a lot more in 17 syllables than you can in Japanese. So the American writers quickly stopped using that many, as the haiku had too much in them. They had lost the beauty of their brevity. Then there was no consensus about how many syllables it should be, if not 17.
Usually it's 11-13.
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:41 pm
by tallguy
Full count
swing and miss - hard fastball
dust from the catcher's glove
-(based on a haiku by) Gerard John Conforti
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:55 pm
by Blancito21
tallguy wrote:All the haiku are "correct", inasmuch as poetry cannot be "incorrect".
OK, here's the short version, for those who can't be bothered to use Wikipedia.
In Japanese, yes, there are quite well-respected rules, such as the 5-7-5 sequence, or at the very least, a total of 17 syllables. There are certain quirks to the language that makes that exact combination of syllables very beautiful, and easy to remember, but those quirks are not present in English. (Or American, hehe!)
But, in English you can say a lot more in 17 syllables than you can in Japanese. So the American writers quickly stopped using that many, as the haiku had too much in them. They had lost the beauty of their brevity. Then there was no consensus about how many syllables it should be, if not 17.
Usually it's 11-13.
Only an Oxford man...