Haiku - for no reason at all

[calliope]

Amusing faces
Speak profound thoughts with only
Gestures and nuance

[Mezurashi]

Haiku for the day;

Thursday is the shit
The day before Friday, yeah
Now to lose the boss.

and

Breakfast is yummy
Bran muffins and strong coffee
Nice to see you, too.

[calliope]

We're all about love
Or is it only money
Reality please

[proffett]

Another day down
one step closer to the grave
but I'm not dead yet.


loathsome frigid cold
the sun is shining today
Can't it be warmer.

[Cartesiantheater]

Originally Posted by Cartesiantheater

Truth tables are fun
But Calculus is a bitch
Why does Calc come first?

Days ago I thought
Higher math was easier
Now my head's spinning

Originally Posted by proffett

Another day down
one step closer to the grave
but I'm not dead yet.

Your Haiku sounds like
Birthday wishes I once gave
To AO Members

[proffett]

Originally Posted by Cartesiantheater

Your Haiku sounds like
Birthday wishes I once gave
To AO Members

Yet one man's death wish
Is anothers bright future.
It's all perspective :)



I apologize,
I am being forward here,
nice shirt, wanna fuck?



Such distance between
hundreds of miles apart,
And yet, we are one


Ok, I have to stop or I'll sound like this all day.

[calliope]

Originally Posted by Cartesiantheater

Days ago I thought
Higher math was easier
Now my head's spinning

Mathematical
Universal flame dancing
to infinity

Originally Posted by Cartesiantheater

Your Haiku sounds like
Birthday wishes I once gave
To AO Members

Proffett's haiku is
in the spirit of CT
rather Pink Floyd-ish

[Cartesiantheater]

You people are smart
Sometimes I'm pleasantly stunned
By your cleverness




None of my Haikus
Have been particularly
Poetic thus far

[proffett]

Originally Posted by Cartesiantheater

You people are smart
Sometimes I'm pleasantly stunned
By your cleverness

Mental connections
through pixelated windows
nourishing my soul

Cartesiantheater
whether witty or direct,
views worth reflection.

The sweet Calliope
My wordsmith muse of AO
you're sweetness is true :)

[calliope]

Originally Posted by Cartesiantheater

You people are smart
Sometimes I'm pleasantly stunned
By your cleverness




None of my Haikus
Have been particularly
Poetic thus far

Bright vibrations have
Unknown reverberations
Both sublime and light

[calliope]

Originally Posted by proffett

The sweet Calliope
My wordsmith muse of AO
you're sweetness is true :)

Magical lady
Proffett shines with mystery
Depths ephemeral

[HindSight]

Too many disasters
Homelessness starts in the mind
What to do this time?

[phedrereine]

Kleptomaniac
Stole the heart from my pocket
I am not insured

[phedrereine]

Sorrow tinges waves
With white and whispering spray
Soaking me with rue

[Mezurashi]

Good God, you folks rock
Imagination Abounds
Now to drain my brain

Today was okay
Lots of heavy shit to move
Where is my forklift?

My cat is a bitch
All she wants is to be fed
Why is she not fat?

Macaroni good
Add cheese and bake for an hour
I'll clean up later

I need to pass out
But my mind is wide awake
Where are the Quaaludes?

[Mezurashi]

ah ... the 'deep thought' finally surfaced ...

Eloquent wordscapes
But the page remains empty
What do we cherish?

maybe now I can get to sleep, lol

[calliope]

Dear oh dear ahem
Red face all fiercely ablush
Haiku blood rushes

Mezurashi's words
strike a cord in my psyche
Please forgive these thoughts

Words are ravishing
Cherishing Mezurashi
My brain's on fire

(sorry! ...."Mezurashi" is such a wonderful haiku word.)

[calliope]

K, had a question about the syllables in "fire". One or two of 'em? What an elegant and sculptural linguistic explanation I found....

..."Is fire one syllable or
two?" is that it depends on how you pronounce it. This has a lot to do
with the complexities of human speech and vowel formation.

Your question is really asking, "What is a syllable?" For the most
part, our original grammar school understanding that "A syllable is a
part of a word with a single vowel sound" is essentially correct, but
there's more to it than that. Let's look at a linguistic defintion of
"syllable":

" A syllable is a unit of sound composed of -1- a central peak of
sonority (usually a vowel) and -2- the consonants that cluster around
this central peak." (1)

It is important to remember that linguistic definitions of things like
syllables do not depend on the spelling of the word, but rather, the
phonetic makeup of the word. Basically, this definition tells us that
a syllable is a cluster of phonemes -- one of which has the property
of "sonority", essentially "ability to behave like a vowel". Sonority
is a scale: Vowels are most sonorous, less sonorous are laterals (like
/r/ and /l/) and nasals (like /n/ and /m/), less so are fricatives
(/v/, /f/, etc.) and the least sonorous are plosives (/p/, /k/,
/t/...)

In the case of the word "fire," what's happening is this:

If you pronounce the word "fire," you are generally using the
following phonemes:

/f/ /ay/ /r/, where /ay/ is a very high vowel that is moving forward
in the mouth (a diphthong-- changing between an /ah/ sound and an /ee/
sound). Suddenly when you're done pronouncing the /ay/, you need to
drop very far back to make the /r/ sound, which originates way back on
the soft palate. Coming off of the diphthong makes a natural break in
the word and /r/ acts as what is knowns as a "syllabic consonant", a
consonant which acts as a syllable indicator. We can be certain that
the /r/ syllable isn't receiving a vowel sound from the diphthong
because the final sound in the diphthong is at the opposite end of the
mouth as the /r/ sound.

Because phonemes like /r/ have such a high sonority, they easily take
on the role of vowels in syllables (depending on the formation of the
word). If you listen very carefully to the word "fire", you will
notice that there is no real separate vowel sound assigned to the
second syllable. Some people would tack a "schwa" (a neutral "uh"
sound, symbolized by an upside-down "e") before the /r/ sound, but
really it's not a separate phoneme: Play the following game: Go "fff,
eye, rrr" and gradually run the sounds together by saying them faster
and faster in sequence. Compare this to trying to run together "fff,
eye, uh, rrr." The first definitely sounds like "fire" (but
notice--only three phonemes) and the second sounds like some
ridiculous thing. Really /r/ is acting as its own vowel.

Similar in behavior is the word "oil", which is composed of two
phonemes: /oy/ (another diphthong) and /l/. But it is still pronounced
by most people as two syllables. Once again we have a diphthong
followed by a consonant with a high sonority. The movement across the
mouth of the diphthong seems to engage the sonorous nature of the /r/.
...

So it would seem that the initial answer to your question above is
that "fire" has two syllables. However, linguistics is not only about
how a particular person pronounces a word but also about any common
pronunciation of the word. It's easy to imagine a person with a
Southern accent saying /f/ /ah/ /r/, which has only one syllable. The
reason is that the diphthong is gone -- the double movement across the
mouth that made /r/ act as a syllabic consonant is gone. Now one could
imagine a less "regional" variation of this occurence by gradually
moving the /ah/ phoneme up in the mouth until the vowel sound is more
forward, but the absence of the diphthong makes the word still sound a
little weird to someone who is used to hearing neutral, "accent-free"
English (e.g., "newscaster English"). If you are willing to accept
widespread regional pronunciations as "standard" then there are
clearly two pronunciations of "fire" in English, one with one syllable
and one with two. But if you wish to avoid such complications and
declare that "standard" means "as spoken by someone with a neutral
accent," then you would be hard-pressed to convince someone that
"fire" could be pronounced with one syllalbe. Unfortunately,
linguistically speaking, what is "standard" is what is spoken. This
sometimes includes multiple pronunciations. Particularly in American
English where there is no national academy to prevent language change
(q.v. France) it is seldom a cut-and-dried decision of what consitutes
"standard" and what does not.

It is worth pointing out that it would be nearly impossible to
genuinely pronounce "fire" with the full /ay/ diphthong without
syllabizing the /r/. In this sense the /f/ /ay/ /r/ pronunciation of
"fire" definitely has two syllables, linguistically speaking.

http://answers.google.com/answers/th...id/112732.html

Ahh...now I can rest, with the sublime knowledge that syllables have such a living, complex vitality, and actual structure, about them. Bliss.

[Demonskates]

On AO at work.
A perfect waste of my time..
thank god I get paid.

[proffett]

Originally Posted by calliope

Ahh...now I can rest, with the sublime knowledge that syllables have such a living, complex vitality, and actual structure, about them. Bliss.

Heh, I used to spend days and weeks immersing myself in poetical exploits.. Playing with words until they conformed to my style and my liking. I think that is the beauty of any written verse, the ability for the words to become exactly as you wish them. As for fire and words like them, I tend to use them with either connotation, one and two syllables depending on my personal need.

It's early, let's see what I have today..

The gray of winter
where has the sun gone off to?
Warmth is in the heart.

[Mezurashi]

for me the fun of Haiku is the challenge of sticking to the syllabic structure to express complete thoughts.

of course there is also the subtle aspect of expressing an incomplete thought which leads to the reader thinking further ...

then there's the excuse to try and 'class-up' what are in essence dirty limericks, lol.

Haiku for the day;

Finally Friday
Too bad I work tomorrow
Oh well, what the fuck

and

I love my coffee
Legal drugs sold all over
Cream and sugar please

[Demonskates]

I love chineese food.
Orange flavored spicy chicken.
Its good like candy.


so not haiku....8 sylables rather than 7 i fail..

[calliope]

Spicy stuff is best
Thai coconut hot curry
So very awesome

[calliope]

Originally Posted by proffett

Heh, I used to spend days and weeks immersing myself in poetical exploits.. Playing with words until they conformed to my style and my liking. I think that is the beauty of any written verse, the ability for the words to become exactly as you wish them. As for fire and words like them, I tend to use them with either connotation, one and two syllables depending on my personal need.

Oh quite. Words are shapers of worlds. :) It's called spelling cuz they're magical. Shapers of Energy. Creators. In the Beginning was the Word....then there was the Word made Flesh.

The burning question is though....how great would it be to have the "ability to behave like a vowel??"....

Of supreme necessity of course is Sonority, as, "Sonority is a scale: Vowels are most sonorous, less sonorous are laterals," etc etc....umm, go vowels!!

Phoneme is just an exquisite word.

I have a most awesome book on my shelf called The Mystery of the Seven Vowels -- In Theory and Practice.

The seven vowels, which we use in everyday speech, are truly mysterous things. Analysis shows that vowels depend on the phenomenon of harmonics, which is at the very basis of music...when we hear vowels, we are hearing the laws of harmony, which are ultimately the laws of number that are said to govern the universe.

The author discusses systems relating the vowels to planets, tones and colors; he writes of ancient and modern vowel-songs, the names of the gods, and the use of vowels in Gnosticism and ancient magic.

Excerpt from the back cover.

Of such things is true bliss made.

It's early, let's see what I have today..

The gray of winter
where has the sun gone off to?
Warmth is in the heart.

Oh....really love this.

Originally Posted by Mezurashi

for me the fun of Haiku is the challenge of sticking to the syllabic structure to express complete thoughts.

Uh huh. You once complimented a statement of mine on its essential austerity. A rarity for me! Though much admired....as I later mentioned my reverence for Strunk and White. We all are "elements of style"...don't you think?

of course there is also the subtle aspect of expressing an incomplete thought which leads to the reader thinking further ...

The profound magic of poetry, yes.

then there's the excuse to try and 'class-up' what are in essence dirty limericks, lol.

What elegance words can do, eh? What delicious contrast.

I love my coffee
Legal drugs sold all over
Cream and sugar please

Impressive....Coffee: ambrosia, nectar of the Gods. My joy.

[Mezurashi]

Haiku for the day;

Saturday, Yippee
It's time to do chores and stuff?
Vegging is more fun

and

Penthouse parties rule
Twenty seventh floor, way up
Now I'm hung over