Haikewl
If you've been paying even the tiniest bit of attention to what I've been up to lately, you've noticed that haiku hove into view on Hamster Salad with some regularity. That's because haiku is the new Halo 2 and all the cool kids are doing it.

Ten days ago, I learned of Vidfest's haiku contest and, not seeing any rules prohibiting multiple submissions, challenged myself to submit one haiku per day until the contest ends on March 11. Today I was checking my site stats and discovered that someone(s) had navigated to my blog through a search using the words "women haiku." In the best of research traditions, I attempted to replicate the results. I didn't find Hamster Salad, but I did find Bicycling Magazine's haiku contest.

Me, Cycling, and Haiku: My Three Favourite Things
Oooh, thought I. I can do that and win a shiny new bike, too. Undeterred that my brilliant limerick* had failed to garner any notice in last year's humour contest, I submitted a cycling-themed haiku. (No, I'm not going to reveal the haiku I submitted to the Bicycling contest. You can just wait with everybody else until May 30 to marvel at my brilliance.)

Now, I should admit here that I am a bit of a ringer when it comes to the combination of haiku and cycling. A few years ago, a triathlon listserv that I was active on produced a steady stream of "tri-ku" until all the snow went away and we could get back outside on our bikes.

I couldn't find anything in the Bicycling haiku contest about multiple submissions, so tested the possibility by submitting two haiku on one day. Worked like a charm. I offer this information for your own edification because there is no way in the world I have enough time or interest to pop off a haiku a day until May 1. You, idle reader, can haiku your brains out and are welcome to it.

The Real Reason I Love Haiku
Just one more thing about me and haiku. I have a soft spot in my heart for this poetic form because it is what kept my husband in Japan with me when we needed to get him legitimately visa-ed up. We weren't married at the time; I had a full-fledged working visa, but he didn't qualify as my spouse/dependent. Just as his tourist visa was running out, we were introduced to a "school" which "taught" a "form" of "haiku" that the "owner" had "invented." Its twist was that instead of using the traditional seasonal reference, it used a cultural reference, and was called "Culture Hai-Q." Yes, it was pretty much as tacky as it sounds, but it did get Mr. Hamster Salad a cultural visa and that did the trick for us for a while.


* There was a young person named Smith
Whose cycling skills were a myth
Had a bit of a crash
And am real short of cash
Send a Cannondale Scalpel** forthwith.
Please.

** I can't remember if this is the bike I asked for; I was torn between a high-end mountain bike that I would immediately resell and a custom road frame from Seven Cycles that I would cherish for all eternity.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 3:29 PM