This seems to be a week for poetry on the Chicks! Today, I’m discussing the fun, Japanese poetic form of haiku.
I was first introduced to haiku back in 1977, when my law professor father initiated the Federal Jurisdiction Haiku Festival at the UCLA School of Law, inviting students and professors to submit original poems on this arcane subject. This was long before I became an attorney, and at the time I knew nothing about “fed. jur.” (as it is fondly referred to by those of the legal persuasion). But I was much taken with the elegance and simplicity of the poetic form. Here’s an example of a haiku my dad composed for the festival:
Legislative courts
Are but agencies in drag;
Glidden is but paint.
—Kenneth L. Karst
(Click on this Wikipedia entry if you want to learn about the joke contained within the poem.)
Haiku consists (in English, anyway) of three unrhymed lines of poetry, of five, seven, and five syllables. Though not required, these poems commonly contain an image depicting a specific moment in time.
I was thinking about my dad’s festival recently, and it occurred to me: If you can compose haiku on a theme as dry as federal law (no offense, Dad), why not also on the captivating subject of a murder mystery? Would it be possible to reduce a mystery story down to a mere seventeen syllables?
I decided to give it a try. Here’s the plot—or at least the set-up—of my latest Sally Solari culinary mystery, Death al Fresco, set as a haiku:
The body lies still:
Gray hair tangled in green kelp.
Who killed the old man?
Hooked (yes, that’s a pun, since the dead guy is an old Italian fisherman), I penned another, this time a tad sillier:
Bloodstains on white gloves,
A silver salver missing.
The butler did it.
I had so much fun with these that I asked my fellow Chicks if they wanted to give it a try, and several of them said yes. Here are their entries:
Seven ticked-off Chicks,
Feathers and claws in the coop.
Eggatha nails wolf.
—Lisa Q. Mathews
Writers make stuff up,
But sometimes lies tell the truth
Better than the facts.
—Vickie Fee
Fear creeps up slowly.
Terror because once again,
My word count is low.
—Ellen Byron
Okay, readers, now it’s your turn: C’mon and try your hand at the game and leave a murder mystery haiku of your own below in the comments!
And to sweeten the pot, one randomly chosen person who comments with a haiku by midnight on Sunday, Nov. 4, will win an e-book of the Sally Solari culinary mystery of their choice!
AND THE WINNER OF THE SALLY SOLARI MYSTERY EBOOK IS TARI HANN! CONGRATULATIONS, TARI, AND THANKS TO ALL WHO POSTED SUCH TERRIFIC HAIKUS!
Oh my gosh I had fun reading what you guys came up with, mine will be terrible! Ok here goes: “Love cozy authors; they really know how to write; humor…murder…yeah!” And…this is why YOU ladies do the writing and I just read it (and write about it in reviews but that kind of writing is something I can do lol)!
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Tari, I love your haiku!!
Leslie, this was so much fun. Now I want to do more!
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Ellen, I understand the terror of low word counts! LOL!
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Thank you, Tari!–I love this!! It’s wonderful!
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Aw, Tari, this is great! I think we need to do an anthology of these (Leslie, we’ll even invite your dad).
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Love it, Tari!!
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Why do I think this post was made for Mark Baker? Although, Tari, your entry is awesome! Here’s my attempt: Dead on a Friday; Killed by an angry client; Should have called in sick.
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Awesome!
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Ha! This is terrific, Marla–such a vivid story in just three lines!
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Yes! Movie rights!!!
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Ha, great, Marla — flash fiction in haiku form!
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Thanks for the shout out! When I saw this blog title, I started smiling like you wouldn’t believe.
And I loved your Haiku.
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That’s great, Marla!
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Once upon a time
Bloody disfigured lifeless
You ask who done it
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Ooo, this one’s scary! Brrr…
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Hey, “once upon a time” works for first line — brilliant! I’m making a mental note. 🙂
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Yikes! That IS scary!
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Ahhhh! Scary! Great job, Deb.
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Love this post, Leslie! I’ve loved haiku since second grade (or whenever it was they taught syllables). We had to illustrate them, as I remember. (And I did check out Glidden. A little over my head, but I kept looking for paint?)
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Glidden is a paint company.
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Ohhh…guess I don’t read read well enough to be an attorney,
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Body floats in lake
Victim former swimmer who
Won at the wrong race
(Is there high stakes betting in swimming?)
Loved this post. After years spent working on Haikus, it’s always nice to see them mentioned.
(I’ve read all your books
I don’t need second copy
Please let others win.)
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Ooooo, Mark–love this! But now you really have to write about twenty more verses so we can learn the rest of the story!
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LOL! I would, but I don’t want to end up like the swimmer.
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LOL about the second one–I’ve seen you write that so many times in giveaways. Now you can just cut and paste and haiku it. And the first one is so gripping! Bravo.
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I’m Greek. Why limit yourself to 17 syllables when 500 words will do. I’ll stick to reviewing books.
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LOL — I get you Christine! I tend to go on for about 75,000 words. 🙂
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I WISH I could go on for 75K.
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HA! Nice. And thank you for reviewing books! We are all grateful for that!
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Fun post, Leslie! Thanks for bringing out our poetic side!
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The knife is sharpened
The table is set
Where are the children now
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The last line should have been Where are the children now? I asked
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Oh my, but are we getting some creepy poems–love it!
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Oh my gosh, shivers.
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Sally Solari
Once again figures it out
In Murder From Scratch!
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Yay!
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oh crap, that does not abide by Haiku rules
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Yes it does! I love it, Mary!!
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I love this post! I wish I could come up with a clever reply in haiku, but I still have a cold from my trip. You’re all brilliant!
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You can write about the Brooklyn Funk! And getting stuffed in a trunk! Oh. Right. No rhyme. Dumped in the Hudson.
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Feel better, M! xo
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Love this post too! Have been so busy this week that I couldn’t even think straight, much less compose a poem on time. But you’re all very inspiring, so…
How to handle this:
Sky falling on cluttered desk.
Need more coffee now.
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Great image of the sky falling on the cluttered desk–lovely!
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A true feeling of foreboding here *runs to check own desk*
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This is such a great way to get the poetic juices flowing. When in college I took Exploratory Prose, we had to use 20 lines and every other line had to rhyme in sonnet form. I loved it then and still try to do it with what is going on in my life now. Thanks for the memories of that experience.
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That’s such a lovely activity! Sonnets stretch the brain, don’t they? 🙂
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I like a good tale
Mystery is better
Romance does no harm
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Love it, Barbara!
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