Fall is probably in the air where you live, and I bet you're feeling frisky. Why not burn off some of that unbridled energy in a creative way that may also prove fun? OK, I'll settle for diverting. Let's play a biblio-game of Book Haiku. Here's how you do it:
Think of a favorite book or some work of literature. Now choose something about it to write a haiku on. It can be a 17-syllable plot summary; you can profile a character, say three lines on Hamlet's fatal flaw; you can go Madison Avenue on us and coin a "plug" to get other R&BLers to "read this book!"
Or, if both sides of your bed were the wrong ones this morning, you can pick a subject not your favorite. Perhaps something suggested to you by one of Ellid's recent diaries? This time your haiku can be a pan instead of a paean.
The point is anyone can play, anyway they want to, just include the title and author of the work your haiku is about. And I'll make it worth your while. . .well, I'm offering an inducement.
Please turn the page.
There's really nothing more to this game. Once you've composed your masterpiece of pithy comment, post it in the comment thread. Later tonight I'll post a companion diary to this one where you can vote on your favorite haiku. Finally, Monday morning I'll post the third and final related diary and announce the winner.
Now here's the inducement. I will, if the winner is willing to provide me his/her snail mail address, mail several books from my own library to the champion hikuist as a -- ahem -- prize! No promises what you will receive, it's a grab bag. There might even be comments in the margins of some portion of said prize, guaranteed to annoy you. You can bet at least one of the books you'll get will be yellowed and crumbling with age, give off a malodorous scent of rot, and provoke explosive sneezing when opened. And as a pièce de résistance, I may enclose a bonus silverfish along with the books.
Who wouldn't want all that!?
How can you win? Perhaps exhibit exquisite humor; maybe beguile us with pear-shaped vowels; display breath-taking insight; smack us up the side of the head with ham-fisted metaphors. I don't care. It will be up to the judges -- R&BLers' readers -- to decide who among you is the haute-iest of the haikuists. Feeling perverse (that bed business)? Add a twist -- don't include title and author and let us guess them like in the [insert appropriate descriptor here] example of 5-7-5 form that I offer to get you all started:
Toad revs his motor
Swirling dust clogs the nostrils.
Choked Ratty and Mole.
Now that I've put you in the right frame of mind, it's time to play R&BLers Book Haiku Contest. Place your entry in the comment thread. . .NOW!
11:48 AM PT: UPDATE: Don't forget to VOTE for your favorite haiku in the 4PM follow-up diary TODAY. WINNER will be announced tomorrow, early AM (ET).