I’m re-discovering typography. That is, fonts. I had forgotten how much I love type faces.

Typographica is a blog all about fonts. It’s literally the reading equivalent of wine-tasting!

Hey! So I was reading something somewhere, and it made me think of haikus. Thinking of haikus made me realise how much I like them, but in a funny way, not in a serious way.

Haikus, basically, are a form of Japanese poetry. They are written in three lines, the first with 5 syllables, the second with 7, and the third with 5. A bit like a Limerick, but more cultural and sophisticated.

Now, I like them because it means you can write a sentence and break right in the middle to make it sound funny. And it occurred to me: why not hold a competition to see what haikus people can write.

There are proper ways to do them (you can read about them on Wikipedia: Haiku), but I am not looking for proper. I am looking for whatever people want to do. Here is my attempt, inspired by a post I read about Psalms on Facebook just now:

Hebrew king wrote psalms.
He uses a Selah; I
don’t know what that is.

Now, I am no expert in Japanese literature, so I probably don’t know too much about them, but I want to hear your entries. The best will win an object of suitable goodness taken from my own home. I don’t know what prize shall be up for grabs, but it won’t be trash. Then again, it won’t be treasure … but it will be of suitable goodness, that is a promise.

The rules are:

1. It must be 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. No fudging of the rules here. No, no, no. [Edit: Unless you do it really well! Ha ha.]
2. My decision is final and I will judge on my own terms, bearing in mind that I am not a literature expert, nor a Japanese culture expert.
3. Competition closes whenever I want it to close, but it will close in a reasonable amount of time. Like a month or something, but it depends on how many posts I get.
4. Prize is whatever I want it to be, but I will choose something that would make me laugh/smile/feel like a valued member of the human race if I won it in a silly competition on someone’s blog. In fact I already know what the prize will be, and I know that you will love it, so get writing.
5. People can enter more than once. In fact, please do!
6. If you’re reading this on Facebook, only entries posted in the comments on my blog (beingmrkenny.co.uk/blog/2008/11/haiku/) will be considered. Feel free to post on Facebook if you want, but remember to copy it across.

So there it is.

Hey. We’ve got the Paperwork Pixies in again. I’m in the middle of gestating a children’s novel. It’s quite good fun, actually, means I get to daydream about my little imaginary world. It’s a quality idea, too. Not going to talk about it, obviously.

Not only because someone might nick it, but more that if you let an idea out too soon, it’s not strong enough to take its own weight. Kinda like those baby animals you see on nature programmes that have been just been born. If you talk about an idea too soon, people can criticise it and kill it, but if you let it grow, and nurture it, and look after it, it will come out and be really good, and everyone will go “oh wow, what a lovely idea” and then it will be sick on their shoulders or something, and people will go “you’re taking this baby metaphor too far, Mark” and Mark will be like, “kthxbye”.

Srsly.

Anyway, I seem to have subdued the pixies to the extent where I can get on with at least one useful thing today. Tatty-bye!