Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Return of the Academic Haiku. And Don't Give Us Any Shit About It. ** Does Anyone Read Titles? **


You know, people always give us shit about this, but we KNOW that almost none of these is an actual haiku. But if you know your RYS history at all - or consult the as yet unwritten RYSFAQ - you'd know that academic haiku are "short, enigmatic free verse about academic matters, occasionally referencing seasons, nature, and margaritas." And somebody sent one.


A Professor's Lament

Many students who just didn't care
'bout the difference 'tween “there,” “their,” and “they're”
with papers innumerable
and grammar inscrutable
led me to drink and pull out my hair.



** Update **

Even though we floated this out there on a weekend, we still got a number of nice emails letting us know that the above piece was not just NOT a real haiku, that it was actually a LIMERICK, another form entirely, not free verse, not even very enigmatic, and thus, an incorrectness of such monumental proportion that we should be - wait, let's get the quote straight - "sticking that bonsai tree up our asses."