Music Haiku
A friend forwarded these Haikus to me. They were written by a clarinetist with poetic inclinations, and yes, they spoke to me! They also gave me an idea...let's write Haikus!
Haiku is a Japanese verse form of three unrhymed lines. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables.
So here are a few to get you thinking:
Squeaking and squawking
All eyes roll to the heavens
The clarinet speaks
=====================
The jam session starts
Somebody calls "Giant Steps"
Cold fear grips my brain
=====================
Here's the girl singer
Stepping to the microphone
Pitch, time, all gone now
=====================
Gig is going well
Some one requests "In the Mood"
I look at my watch
=====================
Gorgeous chick tells me
"You sound just like Kenny G"
My ego shatters
=====================
Three-eight, eleven-eight
Damn you, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Five-eight, seven-eight
=====================
The woodwind doubler
Practicing the piccolo
Frustration defined
=====================
Pit orchestra gig
Days and nights become as one
I have no damn life
=====================
Bad intonation
Strings are sharp and reeds are flat
Brass, too loud again
=====================
An oxymoron:
"He plays the accordion
With delicacy"
=====================
Bassoons forever
Try in vain not to sound like
A farting bedpost
=====================
The strings slowly tune
When they're done, the unison
Is anything but
=====================
"I can't find my note"
Bemoans the confused singer
"Quit now," we all pray
=====================
That plate of hors d'oeuvres
Cost more than we're getting paid
Think we underbid?
=====================
God bless Trust Fund gigs
Only have to eat Ramen
For a few more weeks
Replies (93)
Playing Danse Macabre
Think I'll be a witch this year
Halloween madness
This one is for before we started requesting people to post reasons for their favorites....
The best recording?
It's Heifetz. No reason why.
This thread is boring.
I love practicing
Until I see in the score
The fingered octaves
Mattias Ekland
has stolen all my prunes
master of the runs
My fingers rebel
As I scan the black ovals
Sing, violin, sing!
Teacher haiku:
I'm in school today.
Twenty minute group lessons.
Tuned up? Lesson ends.
Fingers, play in tune
Just this once; do it for me,
Or I'll chop you off!
And one for me:
Finzi Introit blues
Squeals too high to stay in tune
My harmonic hell
Hours of practice
My Fingers bleed from sharp strings
Violin Hickey
Least talent -- most cash?
Andre Rieu, skill adieu...
Vanessa Mae win.
Harold Schoenberg once wrote a column in praise of a sort of "poetry" which involved:
1) First line involving a two-part nonsense word, both parts tri-syllabic
2) A mention of a real, famous person in the second line
3) A polysyllabic single-word penultimate line
4) A sense of humor
Thus, he wrote:
"Rickety-rackety
Boulez and Stockhausen,
Serial exponents,
Know all the tricks.
Opium tone-rows they
Inhale with joyousness
Dodecaphonically
Getting their kicks."
A few little passages to describe the life of an adult beginning the violin.
---------------
Bad intonation!
I think I'll stick to guitar
Thank goodness for frets
---------------
Ernst F sharp minor,
Concerto I'll never play
I, the late starter.
---------------
Practicing Sevcik
The bane of my existance
Someone kill me please
---------------
Lousy repetoire.
I want to play Tchaikovsky!
Not nursery rhymes!
---------------
"I SAID LEGATO!"
Shouts the violin teacher
"PLAY IT PROPERLY!"
---------------
I call this opus
"Woes of the Adult starter"
Give me sympathy.
---------------
oops... sorry Laurie, I didn't realise I plagiarised the first line of one of your poems!
Another adult beginner....
No time to practice
Too many teenage dramas
Blown concentration
I pay attention
take notes, ready to focus
the day ends, oh well
School - the kids are gone
Morning solitude, what joy
My violin sings
No problem, actually I can't take credit for any of those. They came from that poetic clarinetist!
While on stage, my Strad
Fell from my fingers and crashed!
It became toothpicks.
The smallest viol
That the world has ever seen:
A Stradivirus
Sorry for such corny contributions, hahaha! I hope someone enjoys them, nonetheless :-P
Corny is what this thread is about! Unless, of course, someone comes up with a serious work of poetry.
I've decided to do a prune haiku:
Prunes can be eaten like that
Prunes can be turned juice
Prunes are used by violinists!
:D
One-Sim
Greetings,
Laurie, that gets a metaphorical demerit. These are all -serious- works of poetry. (It`s just the perpetrators who seem to have a few mental problems...)
Cheers,
Buri
This room practice that room practice
cacaphony sandwich poor neighbours!
To mute or not to mute?
My delight or theirs?
Fuzz-buzz sound or shrill joy?
Gotta practise, when to practise? Day time night time what time right time? Now!
Oops, the 17 syllables are there but not in the right order.
Buri,
I could well be mistaken, but I was under the impression that haiku only had to contain intimations of or references to seasons, not necessarily actual seasonal words. Is that wrong? Perhaps I got that idea because the class I took in which we read a lot of haiku (especially Basho) was all translations, but it does seem that overt references to seasons aren't mandatory.
Enough Haiku, here's a prune limerick.
There once was a man who ate prunes
Which seriously affected his tunes
Whilst playing the harp
His flats became sharp
So now he's just playing the spoons
You are all artists
Deep, intellectual sorts
Write me more poems
Just fill up my board
With poems to make me laugh
I'll give you all stars
Or fill up my board
With poems to make me cry
I'll give you stars, too!
I'm all out of stars
I'm so lost with out them, I
know it was wrong, pre-
tending I'd give them...
I'm all out of stars, I can't
give without them, I...
Greetings,
Laurie is in a black hole,
The center of a prune.
Cheers,
Buri
Greetings,
that@s right Jude. My reference to seasonal words meant what you said. I just can`t rite ziss engrish stuff no more,
Cheers,
Buri
Fall night, needing sleep
Words shifting drifting through head
Crazy Haiku thoughts.
New instrument stand
Walnut, made with loving hands
Cradles violin.
Musical notes soar
Flowing through the crisp clear days
Autumn arias.
Tree sheds ruby leaves
burying green grass. Sad notes
drift through window pane.
Cherished violin
Purchased with time, labor, skill
Tangible love gift.
Ramblings, Wanda
Talking of seasons, I love Keats' poem "Ode to Autumn"
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
I also like this haiku because it's so cleveryly done:
Children are always
gentle flowers growing wild
nurture them softly
Last time I touched it
'twas scented with vermouth, no
rosin to curb Fall.
---
Been up to my glass
in Cage, Eliot, Klee--
fermata capsules.
---
No bones in these tunes,
just some gut-racking synapse
and no cider at all.
---
You are the tonic
I revisit each autumn;
too quiet in here.
---
If you were the third
would you feel inferior
to that bright red C?
---
I've been gone on air,
on dull sepia chants, for
many autumns. Cheers...
---
I've lost my scales, childs,
so deep in this labyrinth,
many dismal sounds.
---
Staccato leaves crunch,
ochres clatter on the ash,
how 'bout some Glenn Gould?
---
Would it be too crass
to shout "polyphonic jerk"
at that hill's quilt-face?
---
"Poetry is verb,"
says cummings. I don't believe
in a single noun.
Laurie, is this poetry in moderation?
Greetings,
its poetry 101. We should debate de merits and de demerits of dis stuff,
Cheers,
Buri
ROFL
I'm always down for critique.
The haiku which caught my attention are: the one that referenced Kenny G, all of Phil Kurian's, Sue's tuning/lesson over, and of course all the prune inuendos and the silly ones (though I always go for the narrative first).
If anyone is interested--many people don't realize they can enjamb lines in haiku and tweak the form, rather than end each line with a clause. Why limit oneself so rigidly, especially given the translated formula which does not make as much sense in our language perhaps?
Furthermore I know of many American haiku-writers who do not follow the traditional syllabic prescription, and their work is still considered haiku.
To me a haiku is not about syllables, but about conveying a brief flash of reality. To me a good haiku should feel like a brushstroke, a gesture that sketches a moment with rustic sensitivity. But what do I know, not much really, only that I am running out of shampoo.
Oh...wanted to ask Laurie or anyone, why does Emil get his name highlighted? I mean we all know he's a rockstar...
Best to all,
k
Greetings,
I think it`s so I don`t mispell it and he accidently gets addressed as Email,
Cheers,
Buri
Kismet, close your can
Of worms, and get thee to the
Moderation thread.
Where O where might this
thread be, its location's a
complete mystery.
Greetings,
a-tisket a -tasket,
it will make you a basket.
Buri
Touche, my dear! Lol.
On yonder diss board, ye scroll
Down a little more
And ye shall find thread:
V.com Moderation
System. Fare thee well!
Dear girl, do you mean
the thread called moderation
system, which has been
left undisturbed since
yesterday? If so, why do
I want to be there...
Kismet talks of a flash of reality:
Which reality
Where asks the brahmin's son, in
Or around the cloud?
(What happens when you
Write haiku on v.com
After reading Hesse)
Greetings,
an excess of Hesse
makes a helluva mess,
Cheers,
Buri
My stars, such lovely thoughts, friends.
Lovely haiku, Jude...
I had a Buddhist contribution, but deleted it...'twas a bit too over-the-top in my typical fashion. And given my fever and delirium, well, I just won't be held responsible for what might've been said.
btw do you say Hesse with one syllable or two?
ciao,
k
i say it with one personally. but then i say "buri" with one as well, so take that for what its worth.
Greetings,
I throw up on one syllable.
Cheers,
buri
Owen is a founding member of the Committee Against Vowels.
Hmm, Hesse is probably 2 syllables really, but that haiku decided it should be one for metrical purposes. Could someone who actually knows German comment on that?
It's two syllables; just wondering whether you were of the "Hess" or of the "Hessuh" school. ;)
i say H-S
no vowels for me.
Owen "the Snake" Sutter.
lol,
to get an idea of how i say buri. drink a fifth of whisky and try to say bury. watch out for drool.
What a lovely image that conjures...thank you. I know all about the whiskey slur. I was runner-up in the annual Slur-Off back in Hornell, NY, where I grew up.
Posted about a bazillion times on the net but meh...
Willard Espy -
"I ku; you ku; he,
She, or it ku; we ku; you
Ku; they ku. Thanku"
I Kun, personally. And Buri, if you throw up on one syllable, I'd hate to see what you do on one prune.
Greetings,
Owen, I believe you have reduced me to a French cheese,
Cheers,
Br
If one had to be reduced, not a bad choice...
reduced?
mmm, brie.
State your answer in the form of a poem, please. This is a poetry thread. Ahem.
Greetings,
I believe you have reduced me to a French cheese,
If one had to be reduced, not a bad choice...
reduced?
mmm, brie.
Laurie, what could be more poetic than this collective effort?
Cheers,
Buri
mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, brie,
and it's good with crackers, too...
...something about fall.
Brie with warm apples
plus a fine glass of merlot
ensure rosy cheeks.
---
Here's a fresh baguette
for the brie in the oven.
Merdre, where's that beret...
---
Tonight we're watching
'Jean de Florette'; we've got some
good brie and good wine.
---
Something about a
soft white wheel and sun-filled grapes
that makes death easy.
All well and good, but--
"Death and Transfiguration:"
what makes THAT easy?
fingers are not cold
the sweet scent of hot rosin
a bead of sweat rolls
the slivers of light
the specks floating around
breathing slows and stills
behind closed eyelids
images dancing, swirling
heat rises again
notes on paper lines
fading in and out always
just a little more
the phone rings and dies
images swirling, fading
light shifts and moves, gone
eyes open now stare
dogs bark leaves are blown away
hammers on rooftops
fingers are not cold
the stench of freshly cut grass
the sweetness is gone
Oooh, hats off to Jeff and Kismet for some good stuff! Lovely-jubbly, as we say here in Britain, in our best non-rhyming slang.
thanks — Means a lot coming from someone wearing the "A" ;P
i don't write haikus, i only write poems...is that okay?...then what am i doing here?!
Greetings,
Beats me,
have some tea,
Buriiiii
Time moving forward
Never to return
Used for Haiku writing
Stolen from practicing
Violinists Repent!
Greetings,
what could be finer,
than a pungent three-liner,
from Oliver Steiner?
Cheers,
Buri
Bach in G minor?
%$# in a diner?
slapping a shriner?
To play Eine Kleine?
again?
A Little More Night Music?
Depends how you use it.
Carl.
As the saying goes:
'know your enema."
Cheers,
Buri
resurrecting thread
Lisa made me look for it
hey make up some more
As a side note, if anyone is really in to haiku on atypical topics, look for the two sets of haiku on economics that my father has published in the journal, Rethinking Marxism.
hey capitalist
maybe haiku will make you
rethink marxism
Call the F.B.I.
SUBJECT: commie haiku book
AUTHOR: Ziliak
~~~
That strong, steely sound
Mullova is a goddess
I think I love her
Listening to Bach
They make it sound so easy
Why can't I do that?
*******
While practicing, I
start to think of more haikus;
and lose my focus
*******
Shosty concerto
1 is amazing; I'll shoot
all who don't agree
*******
My shoulders are sore
Could be six hours of practice
What was I thinking?
*******
Mathis der Mahler
streaming through my earphones like
a colorful dream
i'm a booger eatin' maniac
;ljipj'pj'pihj'pihn'ihknknm m. ,jhkg gilhgliygiyyhiuy9liuyo97i
Hell personified:
Filing my tax return to
My mom's flute practice
I think this came to me in a dream.
Your vibrato's sharp.
Hmmm. Your finger is crooked.
See you next week Jim.
I fund a fairy on stage,
he played Beethoven...
I am in love
it is not measured well...but i like it!!
the OR game is long
Whoever started it's cool
it will never end :p
I love Gil Shaham
His Beethoven is the best
I want to hug him!
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October 24, 2004 at 08:51 AM · Greetings,
one characteristic of haiku apart from the number of syllables is thta you have to include a seasonal word. This might not be so obvious in the English verison if you are not Japanese.
So a veyr poor translation from Japanese of my favorite:
The mask that I bought,
Very large eye holes,
Autumn festival.
Men wo kotte,
okii me no ana
aki matsuri
The mask traditionally worn at the autumn festival is a skull. The point being that even though on e is having a good time winter (or death) is coming soon.
One of the most famous for rather nefarious reasons is:
You only live twice,
Once when you are born,
And once when you die.
No prizes for guessing the movie...
So instead of a season word, howabout a string word?
the fiddle I got,
was sounding really super
but my g string broke
Cheers,
Buri