tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8249048926899533432024-03-05T17:39:42.355-05:00High Coup JournalUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-69292016361392548132011-12-25T06:49:00.002-05:002011-12-25T21:42:05.210-05:00High Coup Journal - December 2011 Issue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuV-B59BuO_N5Qt_bpykdzP2KgIu3-l1FiloQwj7Ct3NSK5p8ep7JLp5heaBQNchdrVgE-bQ_EwQbeb_KP1mbl-L_el20pJctN4R6fMlh-jPy8COyK02xpEW1tcsl1T6hzmCILW9WCyVqX/s1600/December+2011.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuV-B59BuO_N5Qt_bpykdzP2KgIu3-l1FiloQwj7Ct3NSK5p8ep7JLp5heaBQNchdrVgE-bQ_EwQbeb_KP1mbl-L_el20pJctN4R6fMlh-jPy8COyK02xpEW1tcsl1T6hzmCILW9WCyVqX/s640/December+2011.png" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Photo by <a href="http://djcandidout.deviantart.com/">Ann Wright</a>, Plymouth, IN)</i></span></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
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IN THIS ISSUE:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.everythingisemptypoetry.blogspot.com/">S.M. Abeles</a> (international man of mystery)
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/ncw/kingstonbib.htm">Maureen Kingston</a> (Wayne, NB)</div>
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<br /></div>
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Rose Kowaliw (Swanzey, NH)
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Leo Kulinski, Jr. (Litchfield, CT)
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.darcymcmurtery.blogspot.com/">Darcy McMurtery</a> (Seattle, WA)
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<br /></div>
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Tom Rault (Laxviken, Sweden)
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<br /></div>
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Taylor Smietanski (Oxford, OH)</div>
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Henry Visotski (Brooklyn, NY)</div>
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Chuck Von Nordheim (Dayton, OH)</div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Editor's Note:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Winter and presents:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>everything is late this year,</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>just like this issue.</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
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Rose Kowaliw</div>
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The Perfect Christmas Tree</div>
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<i>Trudging through the snow</i></div>
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<i>Winds blowing, twenty below</i></div>
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<i>Picked the closest tree</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
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Taylor Smietanski </div>
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<i>No Shave November</i></div>
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<i>Is the way I like to roll</i></div>
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<i>Time for a razor</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Maureen Kingston</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>her Louboutin heels</i></div>
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<i>at the New Year’s Eve party</i></div>
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<i>ice pick his resolve</i></div>
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<i> </i></div>
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<i>special of the day--</i></div>
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<i>beef gravy over French fries</i></div>
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<i>the truck stop madam</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
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Henry Visotski </div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
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<i>Bare knuckle boxing:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Not good, particularly</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>When you’re uninsured</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Chuck Von Nordheim </div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>brown leaf and green lawn</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>poke through the first snow’s white crust--</i></div>
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<i>winter hesitates</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>peppermint slobber</i></div>
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<i>makes your nephew’s face sticky--</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>merry Christmas hug</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>precipitation’s</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>possible forms shapes all plans--</i></div>
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<i>won’t go if it snows</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Leo Kulinski, Jr.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Ducks are on the pond</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Thoreau signals for the curve</i></div>
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<i>Dice K. wheels, deals, strike</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
S.M. Abeles </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Drinking in stillness</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>A cure for mental illness</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Or the next best thing</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>For once it appears</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>it was the sun, not me, that</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>had one too many </i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Darcy McMurtery</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Home Depot</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Waiting in line with</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>a shovel, rope, bag of lime.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>I forgot my bag.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
New Math</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>You call me "my one."</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>I know there are other girls.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Some things don't add up.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Incarcerated </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>in the jury waiting room.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Where's my orange jump suit?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Tom Rault</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>As I lose my hair</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>my patience is growing thin </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>in the barber shop.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>It knows no malice,</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>it knows no pity either:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>the crow wants to eat.</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s1600/asauce.png" style="background-color: white; color: #43ff32; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487878907840985938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s200/asauce.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0898438) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0976563) 1px 1px 5px; height: 64px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; position: relative; width: 64px;" /></a>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
December 2011 AWESOME SAUCE: S.M. Abeles</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>That bastard autumn,</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>destroyer of low necklines,</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>slayer of bare legs</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Next month, stay tuned for</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
experiments with Haikubes...</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
send in your stuff, too!</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div>
highcoupjournal {at} gmail.com</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-15932822392985063032011-11-01T20:56:00.000-04:002011-11-02T00:59:28.952-04:00High Coup Journal - November 2011 Issue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixLUJJHVBiEnhDkfukxEsBmPiI6fL7PV5jZUmVxu1HPZSrcHUl9jEQOFYw3EhVX8e9VK9yu9WDXdX9h_URnUG57t7BeGTUhPd2F43qcFJJOuzqEBMsQeSqvuRqWedNFWaAbM-KGsZqpVFo/s1600/November+2011.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixLUJJHVBiEnhDkfukxEsBmPiI6fL7PV5jZUmVxu1HPZSrcHUl9jEQOFYw3EhVX8e9VK9yu9WDXdX9h_URnUG57t7BeGTUhPd2F43qcFJJOuzqEBMsQeSqvuRqWedNFWaAbM-KGsZqpVFo/s640/November+2011.png" width="480" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Photo by <a href="http://djcandidout.deviantart.com/">Ann Wright</a>, Plymouth, IN)</span></i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
IN THIS ISSUE:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Robin Burke (Terre Haute, IN)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=592168">Mrs. Copeland’s First Grade Class</a> (Terre Haute, IN) </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Rose Kowaliw (Swanzey, NH)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Bob Lucky (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Dennis Maulsby (Ames, IA)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Tom Rault (Laxviken, Sweden)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://sherrysteiner.com/default.aspx">Sherry Steiner</a> (Housatonic, MA) </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Eli Van Sickel (Normal, IL)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Chuck Von Nordheim (Dayton, OH)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Anthony Ward (Durham, England)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Editor's Note:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Hear the powerless</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>crying out for warmth and aid</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>in Connecticut.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div>
Robin Burke</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
falling</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>colorful dead leaves</i></div>
<div>
<i>silently murder my grass</i></div>
<div>
<i>mulching makes me smile</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
Mrs. Copeland’s First Grade Class</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>We saw a turkey</i></div>
<div>
<i>so colorful and chunky</i></div>
<div>
<i>he was so funky</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>On a spooky night</i></div>
<div>
<i>I once saw a haunted house</i></div>
<div>
<i>I ran for my mom</i></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-<br />
<br />
Eli Van Sickel<br />
<br />
<i>I check my Facebook</i><br />
<i>to reassure myself of</i><br />
<i>my safety, I think</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div>
Bob Lucky</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>bad weather forecast</i></div>
<div>
<i>the morning newspaper lies</i></div>
<div>
<i>bleeding in the rain</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Friday at the beach</i></div>
<div>
<i>the bikini-clad tourists</i></div>
<div>
<i>are the attraction</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>the TV blasting</i></div>
<div>
<i>both my parents sound asleep</i></div>
<div>
<i>in their new twin beds</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
Rose Kowaliw</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Two Strikes...</div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Dinner was a bust</i></div>
<div>
<i>Forgot his wallet, again</i></div>
<div>
<i>No more web dating</i></div>
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<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
Tom Rault </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>This doormat will not</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>talk, otherwise it could tell</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>some dirty stories.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Chuck Von Nordheim<br />
<br />
<i>wind-blown leaves dance past</i><br />
<i>lawns decked with campaign slogans—</i><br />
<i>gray days and choices</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i>fall sunlight tints days</i><br />
<i>amber as an old photo—</i><br />
<i>memories seem new</i><br />
<br />
<br />
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-<br />
<br />
Sherry Steiner<br />
<br />
<i>a shocking secret</i><br />
<i>a forgiven yesterday</i><br />
<i>a silk robe nine bucks</i><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Henry Visotski </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>who owes favors where,</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>ass and elephant debate.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>meanwhile, the sun sets</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Dennis Maulsby</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Arms and legs entwined.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Man♂…woman♀, so united, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>yet so far apart.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Shouting men place bets.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>On a red dirt patch of ground</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>cricket sumos fight.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Anthony Ward</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Reflection</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>searching for myself</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>while finding my reflection</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>right where I left it</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s1600/asauce.png" style="background-color: white; color: #43ff32; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487878907840985938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s200/asauce.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0898438) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0976563) 1px 1px 5px; height: 64px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; position: relative; width: 64px;" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
November 2011 AWESOME SAUCE: Tom Rault</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>If I bump my head</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>once more on that attic beam</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>I will saw it off.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
One upcoming month</div>
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to squeeze in more nasty storms</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
and nasty haiku.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
highcoupjournal {at} gmail.com</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-77061639668743961182011-10-20T10:10:00.001-04:002011-10-20T10:10:05.301-04:002012 Pushcart Prize NominationsWe at <i>High Coup Journal</i> and <a href="http://www.draftyatticpress.com/">Drafty Attic Press</a> would like to announce our 2012 nominations for the <a href="http://www.pushcartprize.com/index.htm">Pushcart Prize</a>:<br />
<br />
Toby Bielawski, <a href="http://www.draftyatticpress.com/p/our-books.html"><i>Five Kinds of Fences</i></a><br />
<br />
Dariel Suarez<br />
<br />
Annie Perconti<br />
<br />
Michael Morris<br />
<br />
Sara Bickley<br />
<br />
Bob Lucky<br />
<br />
<br />
We wish these authors the best of luck in the competition.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-47843748727086268092011-10-15T00:00:00.000-04:002011-10-15T00:00:02.457-04:00Five Questions for a First-Grade Teacher: Jayme CopelandThis iteration of Five Questions comes with an appeal from an educator in my hometown, Terre Haute, IN. <i>High Coup Journal </i>publishes the tiniest of poems, so we're also committed to helping out the tiniest of students. Thus we encourage you to <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=592168">donate to first-grade teacher Jayme Copeland's DonorsChoose project</a> to supply her classroom with important literacy materials in a high-poverty school district. Anyway, let's see what she has to say...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>1. They say that "everything I ever needed to know, I learned in kindergarten." Why, then, do you teach first grade?</i><br />
<br />
Teaching first grade is amazing, and I love every minute of it. I feel like I am laying the foundation for everything they are going to learn from this point on. I love seeing the looks on my students faces when they read for the first time-- there is nothing like it.<br />
<br />
<i>2. How much of a difference is the reading level of a kid going into first grade and a kid finishing 1st grade, usually?</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
At the beginning of the school year, some students come in still not knowing all of their letters and sounds, while some come in reading basic sight words and others reading small chapter books. I try to focus in on what each student needs, so hopefully by the end of the year students are able to know all letters and sounds and are able to read most first grade sight words. Meanwhile, other students are beginning to read books on their own, and for my friends already reading chapter books, we work on fluency and comprehension.<br />
<br />
<i>3. Why, then, is your fundraising project so important?</i><br />
<br />
In these tough economic times, budgets are being cut and we don’t have money for extra supplies. One item I have on my list is a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/LEARNING-LOFT-Toobaloo/dp/B000F8R6EU">Toobaloo</a>. Toobaloos look like a phone, and students read into them and can hear themselves read. This makes it easier for them to self-correct, which in turn will help them become more fluent readers. To purchase a set of these on my own would be very expensive.<br />
<br />
I also have supplies listed that will help my students become better writers. They have such great stories, but until they can read and write they cannot express themselves on paper. I spend a lot of money on simple supplies for my students-- that it makes it difficult to purchase bigger items. DonorsChoose.org gives me the opportunity to put my wish list up and then generous donors help my wish list become a reality. My students and I are very grateful for the donations we receive from DonorsChoose!<br />
<br />
<i>4. A lot of picture books are written in poetic form. Do you have any favorite picture books you use with your students?</i><br />
<br />
I have two favorite books that I love sharing with my students every year. <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Polar-Express-Chris-Van-Allsburg/dp/0395389496">The Polar Express</a>,</i> written by Chris Van Allsburg, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Where-Wild-Things-Maurice-Sendak/dp/0060254920"><i>Where the Wild Things Are</i></a>, written by Maurice Sendak. Both books really bring out the kid in me, and for my students they let their imaginations soar.<br />
<br />
<i>5. Do you think you might get your kids to write a few haiku? It's just 5/7/5 syllables... maybe there's a budding poet in the room!</i><br />
<br />
My students have a poetry center that they go to each week, and we practice poetry a lot. I have never tried haiku with my students, but I think with a little guidance and a lot of practice they would be able to write a haiku... or at least give it a good shot!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
JAYME COPELAND graduated from Indiana State University with a B.S. in Elementary Education. She has been teaching for seven years and has been teaching first grade for the last four years. She enjoys the opportunity to mentor future teachers from Indiana State University and also enjoys being involved with Student Council. She and her students love Friday afternoons because they are able to show off their creative side by singing, dancing, or sharing their artwork.<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-10804454284404502262011-10-01T00:00:00.000-04:002011-10-01T00:25:41.700-04:00High Coup Journal - October 2011 Issue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnmqvX6VYXfO0u6gc-vFW6Y9ITZnJ6o4b0w4XzG8IxWRzl6w7VBnYSVHqjI7s1HpERa7edRaGlqy-vZID_LSyZzmukHDD0Y3fdAdjN6N-vkHl9fuqc-bZLbyUBVv3eMHx-DLZxtWIEz6q2/s1600/October+2011+-+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnmqvX6VYXfO0u6gc-vFW6Y9ITZnJ6o4b0w4XzG8IxWRzl6w7VBnYSVHqjI7s1HpERa7edRaGlqy-vZID_LSyZzmukHDD0Y3fdAdjN6N-vkHl9fuqc-bZLbyUBVv3eMHx-DLZxtWIEz6q2/s640/October+2011+-+2.png" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Photo by <a href="http://djcandidout.deviantart.com/">Ann Wright</a>, Plymouth, IN)</i></span></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
IN THIS ISSUE:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Art Bupkis (Gainesville, FL)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Courtney Davis (Freehold, NJ)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Amanda Hillenburg (Sherbrooke, QC, Canada)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Rose Kowaliw (Swanzey, NH)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Chuck Von Nordheim (Dayton, OH)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.itslovelyannie.com/">Annie Perconti</a> (Louisville, KY)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Amelia Ritner (Hinsdale, MA)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
John Tustin (New Hyde Park, NY)</div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Editor's Note:</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Snow, a white pillow</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>waits to smother leaves as red</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>as an infant's cheeks.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Courtney Davis</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>It’s Rosh Hashana</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>wishing you a very sweet</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>and healthy new year</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
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<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
John Tustin</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>All your dark dark hair</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>On my pillow. Like curtains</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Smothering sorrow</i></div>
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<i> </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>You packed up and left</i></div>
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<i>Watching me disintegrate</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>And now I am dust</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Fill my emptiness</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>With your liquid compassion</i></div>
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<i>Flood me with your love</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Your face in the sun</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Your face in the light of moon</i></div>
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<i>I will take them both</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Art Bupkis</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(Mr. Bupkis prefaced his submission with the following explanation: "Well, Yankees, you may be 'anal' about 5/7/5, citing 'English', but these ain't in English, they're in Cracker... Cracker is terse: 3/5/3.")</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>on that pine</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>that damn crow’s landed</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>cock the gun</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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Rose Kowaliw</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Worst Bridesmaid Gown</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i> Hot pink, puffy sleeves</i></div>
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<i>with matching shoes in satin.</i></div>
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<i>Big pink marshmallow.</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Amanda Hillenburg</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
#firstworldproblems</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Protests nationwide?</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>But a celeb did something</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Report that instead.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Children are starving</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Who cares? Facebook changed my feed.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>brb raging</i></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
Annie Perconti</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Slipping hips into</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>belts hung low, laced with language </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>she's ready to flow.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>He's an eye-drifter--</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Slipping low into places </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>the world cannot know. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Thoughts form like stitches.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>The machinist of the mind</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>connects truth with lies.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
Amelia Ritner</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>The cold morning air</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Tea in hand, cat at my feet</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>The winter begins.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
Chuck Von Nordheim<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<i>spectral fog shimmers</i></div>
<div>
<i>above lamp-lit wet blacktop--</i></div>
<div>
<i>autumn’s grey tint grows</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<i>helmeted ranks break</i></div>
<div>
<i>through butcher paper banners--</i></div>
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<i>homecoming heralds</i><br />
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<i>drive past corn stubble</i></div>
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<i>see leaves rage yellow and red--</i></div>
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<i>autumn’s last warm day</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s1600/asauce.png" style="color: #43ff32; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487878907840985938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s200/asauce.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0898438) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0976563) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 64px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; position: relative; width: 64px;" /></a></span></div>
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October 2011 AWESOME SAUCE: John Tustin</div>
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<i>Like riding lightning</i></div>
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<i>I love you differently</i></div>
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<i>But I love you both</i></div>
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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Best of luck to all</div>
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coming up with new ideas</div>
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for haiku and life.</div>
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highcoupjournal {at} gmail.com</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-85898304489551129912011-09-07T22:24:00.000-04:002011-09-08T09:31:28.218-04:00Editorial: Silly Words, Serious Words<i>This editorial is part two in our continuing battle over the nature of the haiku. Read part one <a href="http://www.highcoup.org/2011/07/editorial-5-7-5-does-not-make-haiku.html">here</a>.</i><br />
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-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div>
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BRIAN MORTON:<br />
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I cut my teeth as a student-translator working on short, humorous, lewd poems by Catullus, and long, bombastic, epic poetry by Virgil. I remember adults worrying whether the stray, horndog, jibes of an ancient Roman should really count as literature, yet decades later it has far more meaning to me than the Virgil does, although I won’t insult him either. High minded satire has always managed to sneak into the artistic canon, but there is something about low-class buffoonery, even when honed to precision, that has always been suspicious... And well, <i>High Coup Journal</i> could certainly be accused of low-class buffoonery...<br />
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Japan has a long tradition of poetry in the form of short terse poems or stanzas. The <i>renga </i>for example dates back to the 700s, and at first glance might be mistaken for a collection of haiku. It begins with a tight stanza with a 5-7-5 syllable structure. But the heart of <i>renga </i>is to be collaborative poetry. One poet begins with a 5-7-5 verse and then the next add a 7-7 verse, and the next adds another 5-7-5 and so on, riffing and changing as they go. The point wasn’t maximum impact in a minimum of syllables, but kicking off a process of taking turns and exploring, of coping with change. By the 1600s, perhaps earlier, we get <i>hokku </i>or “starting verses,” the initial verses of a <i>renga</i>, start being used alone by themselves. Here focused impact does seem to be a large part of the point and appeal. Or we get <i>haibun </i>(poetry and prose together) and <i>haiga </i>(poetry and painting together), where the laconic poems, typically in <i>hokku </i>form, comment on the more flowing prose or painting around them.<br />
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Then in the 1890s, Masaoka Shiki decides that it is time to “modernize” this poetic tradition. He coins the term <i>haiku </i>(an abbreviation of <i>haikai no ku</i>, or verse of <i>haikai</i>) as a replacement for the older term <i>hokku</i>, partly as an admission that most of these poems are not written to be the beginning of a collaboration. But, he also codifies how he thinks <i>haiku </i>ought to be. He thinks their essence is “cutting” (<i>kiru</i>), a juxtaposition between 2 words ideas or images with a strong “cutting word” (<i>kireji</i>) both connecting and separating them. Things like the 5-7-5 structure, or the traditional seasonality reference, were secondary for him, part of the definition, but not really key to the essence. He worried that far too much trite and hackneyed crap poetry was being written and published, and used the phrase <i>tsukinami </i>(literally, “monthly”) for this terrible phenomena, a reference both to monthly feminine flows, and to monthly magazines and poetry readings he loathed. If we let Shiki guide our understanding of <i>haiku </i>in English, then it would probably be fair to say that a key feature of <i>haiku </i>is that they not be published in monthly magazines or presented at monthly poetry readings. Shiki himself had no patience for silly <i>hokku </i>or <i>haiku</i>, advocating instead the <i>shasei </i>style, which thinks of <i>haiku </i>as sort of nature sketches in words.<br />
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But Shiki and his contemporary allies don’t really get to define <i>haiku </i>in English-- even though he coined the term-- because most of what we think of as <i>haiku </i>today in English wasn’t <i>haiku </i>in his sense: it only gets called <i>haiku </i>retroactively. Basho, Buson, and Issa all wrote before Shiki’s change of nomenclature, and all three would have called their works <i>hokku </i>and would have disagreed with Shiki about what was central to the poems. Heck, Buddhism (of several different styles) was a key feature of each of these three masters (and much of the earlier <i>renga-hokku-haiku</i> tradition), but it was something that Shiki felt <i>haiku </i>needed to gain distance from, as not in keeping with Japan’s modernization.<br />
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So when we acculturate this notion of <i>haiku </i>to a new century or a new language or continent what needs to remain the same and what can change? Must we keep Shiki’s definition even when it doesn’t fit many of the classics we look to? Do we keep the 5-7-5 structure? The centrality of cut? The seasonality reference? The invitation to longer collaboration? The link between man and nature? The ideological struggles between Zen Buddhism and Pureland Buddhism? Maybe we should build in Shiki's contempt for earlier Japanese poetry in the style or his preference for <i>shasei</i>-style... Nawh, poetry always adapts to the needs of the time and the society, while trying also to remain rooted in its own tradition. So what are the parts of the <i>rengu-hokku -haibun-haiku</i>-etc. tradition that can still meaningfully speak to Americans on the edge of the 21th century? Is the <i>shasei </i>style understanding that <i>haiku </i>is about "recording the essence of a moment keenly perceived, in which nature is linked to human nature" something that can still speak to 21st century Americans? SURE! Lots of that kind of <i>haiku </i>is still written and still read and still has power and meaning, and still seems to draw from its roots in Japanese poetry. If anything, there is enough of that for it to seem overdone, it has plenty of venues.<br />
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So the bigger question is this: does silly, flippant stuff with minimal emphasis on season or man-nature themes genuinely draw from the Japanese poetry tradition of the <i>renga-hokku-haibun-haiku</i> line? YES! It is the heart of the poetic style called <i>haikai no renga</i> (unorthodox or comic <i>renga</i>, often abbreviated <i>haikai</i>), staunchly defended by Basho as being part of the poetic spirit (<i>fuga</i>) in the 1600s, and had plenty of practitioners in later decades as well. For Basho, comic playfulness was essential for holding the right balance between being involved in the world and yet also in some sense detached from it. Portraying the life of commoners, beggars, traveler, farmers, herbalists, was part of seeing the world with eyes searching for beauty, rather than seeking beauty in formalness and abstractions.<br />
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We have classics in the tradition, like Basho<br />
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<i>now then, let's go out </i></div>
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<i>to enjoy the snow... until</i></div>
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<i>I slip and fall! [1688] </i></div>
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or</div>
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<i>even while chopping</i></div>
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<i>the dried herbs</i></div>
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<i>she’s day-dreaming </i></div>
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That last one is from Yaba, one of Bassho's students in a round of renga from 1693 on Street Hawkers. It has no seasonal reference, no connection between man and nature, no Buddhism on display. Yet it records a precise moment via terse words, it explores the emotional depth of the moment, and does so partly via its flippant humor.<br />
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or again Basho (1685)<br />
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<i>His go strategy </i></div>
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<i>comes to him</i></div>
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<i>two days later </i></div>
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Good Lord, change the reference to <i>Mario Kart</i> and that one could easily have come straight out of the <i>High Coup Journal</i>!<br />
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If you want to argue that <i>High Coup</i> publishes "unorthodox" <i>haiku</i>, no one will disagree. If you want to argue that they aren't really <i>haiku </i>at all, properly speaking, I will point to Basho who was actually DEIFIED by the Shinto bureaucracy, and let you battle with verse and fisticuffs against his shade.<br />
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If you want to argue that comic <i>rengu </i>existed but that <i>hokku </i>or <i>rengu</i> are not real <i>haiku</i>, and <i>haiku</i> should not be primarily comic, then you cut off your tradition with your own sword and deserve your humorless fate. A common version of this argument is to argue that the comic stuff focusing on human foibles is "really" "<i>senryu</i>" not "<i>haiku</i>" <a href="http://www.hsa-haiku.org/archives/HSA_Definitions_2004.html">as the Haiku Society of America does</a>. This is a terrible misunderstanding. "<i>Senryu</i>" just means "poetry in the style of Senryu Karai" a particular 18th century Japanese poet. Just because something is in the style of Senryu does not mean it isn't ALSO <i>haiku</i>. Further, humorous poetry in the Japanese tradition is certainly going strong even before Senryu, as my Basho examples show. This would be as bass-ackwards as arguing that any humorous poetry in sonnet form should be called a "Shakespeare" and not counted as a sonnet at all, and that we must make a rigorous distinction between "Shakespeares" and "Sonnets" although of course admitting that Shakespeare himself wrote in both styles. Tommyrot! This is the spirit of overweening academia seeking to choke out what is living and vibrant in the traditions we have been handed by the multi-faceted humans that wrote before us. In Japan, as in Rome or England, the great poets have worked with both silliness and seriousness.<br />
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If you argue, that the English notion of <i>haiku </i>refers to the orthodox <i>haiku </i>only, rather than drawing from the broader Japanese tradition, then you are simply misunderstanding the situation on the ground in American education, and who gets to decide the usage of terms in the US, as well as the body of 20th century <i>haiku </i>in English. We have no Academie Francaise to delineate normative meanings apart from usage, and you have already lost the battle on usage. Americans regularly use the American term <i>haiku </i>to refer to both serious <i>haiku </i>and silly <i>haiku</i>, and frequently admire BOTH.<br />
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Our society often disrespects humor and silliness, especially in high culture side of our society such as academia or the fine arts. No one in showbiz doubts that comedy is as lucrative as seriousness, but real critical commentary on comedy is much rarer than for more serious artistic forms, and comedians and comedy writers rarely come to those professions through academic theatre or writing programs. Even in philosophy, as I’ve argued elsewhere, silliness is one of the most underrated of virtues. One reason is that silliness often subverts existing systems of authority, especially when authority is based more on hard work in the past (and thus credentials), than on ardent love of the topic (amateurism). Thus, silliness can seem especially threatening to those who value professionalism. So it makes sense that organizations who were fighting for respect for <i>haiku</i>, and for respect for themselves as professional poets, might want to distance themselves from the sillier side of the tradition, which might seem frivolous, low class or even (gasp) unprofessional. Nonetheless, silliness is a classic strategy for creativity and coping, helping us to maintain creative tension between genuine engagement with the minutia of life, and detachment from our preconceptions about daily life. In poetry, silliness of spirit is part of the balance between observation of life and insightful commentary that helps give our poetry depth.<br />
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<i>Haiku </i>in English today simply includes plenty of examples of both orthodox <i>haiku </i>focusing on exploring the poetic spirit through sketches of keenly perceived moments typically of human-nature interactions, and unorthodox <i>haiku </i>focusing on exploring the poetic spirit through wry wit typically commenting on common life and pop culture. Both of these American poetic forms are exploring the poetic spirit, and both are firmly rooted in the Japanese tradition of <i>renga-hokku-haibun-haiga-senryu-haikai-haiku</i>. And in English we frequently use the English term <i>haiku</i> as a short hand for the whole glorious multiplex tradition.<br />
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Dr. BRIAN MORTON is a homemaker and ex-philosopher, currently involved with the Terre Haute Street Poets. His poetry has appeared in <i>Subterranean</i>, and a few other poetry mags long ago. His academic work on poetry has appeared in <i>Literae: A Newsletter of Literature and Translation</i> and the University of Idaho colloquium series.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-89480789660291433402011-09-01T22:34:00.002-04:002011-09-01T22:35:02.063-04:00High Coup Journal - September 2011 Issue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs8CFdwqSVLPLc3RcD5b3mgnZyezcvDh8Jdf5gV7g6oAWctaunTpXQwffbT-4NonRils3vogdWMEdvV6oCodZw-HuIhZ39-g5q2OUR9YFP7tPwLQiUuNwyF-j6oVJ5Y3jxrmOgrCE2jpVG/s1600/September+2011.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs8CFdwqSVLPLc3RcD5b3mgnZyezcvDh8Jdf5gV7g6oAWctaunTpXQwffbT-4NonRils3vogdWMEdvV6oCodZw-HuIhZ39-g5q2OUR9YFP7tPwLQiUuNwyF-j6oVJ5Y3jxrmOgrCE2jpVG/s640/September+2011.png" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Photo by <a href="http://djcandidout.deviantart.com/">Ann Wright</a>, Plymouth, IN)</i></span></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">IN THIS ISSUE:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Evan Chow (San Francisco, CA)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Amanda Hillenburg (Sherbrooke, QC, Canada)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Kevin James (Terre Haute, IN)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Rose Kowaliw (Swanzey, NH)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Bob Lucky (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.geoffpope.com/poetry">Geoff Pope</a> (Renton, WA)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/supertetelman">Adam Tetelman</a> (Troy, NY)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Chuck Von Nordheim (Dayton, OH)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Editor's Note:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Hurricane season,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>a sloppy kiss from your aunt</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>who never visits.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Chuck Von Nordheim</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>one final brain freeze</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>caused by cherry flavored ice—</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Dairy Queen closes</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>hurricanes bulldoze</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>human homes in new places—</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>make way for sea rise</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Evan Chow</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Step on bathroom scale.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Darn! Well, let me get my wrench.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Ah, that’s much better.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Kevin James</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>How many times son...</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Lock the door to your bedroom...</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>when you want "me" time</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Who's your kid's father?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Maury has your answers now</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Only cost? Your pride.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Newton Lied to us</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>He discovered gravity</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>by his plumber's pants</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Rose Kowaliw</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Forever Young</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Wrinkles come with age</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>sure as hell won’t be for me</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>not when there's Botox.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Ha Ha Ha</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Manhattan rich bitch</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>wearing last year’s Manolos</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>what was she thinking?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Adam Tetelman</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The roads are all closed</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Danger lurks around each turn</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Time for a roadtrip</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Bob Lucky</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>three days of cold rain –</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>a flock of sheep stop to drink</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>from a deep pothole</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>a night of fireflies –</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>the internet connection</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>flickers on and off</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>the moon lost in clouds –</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>twisting the hair in my ear</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>at the long stop light</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>cold steady drizzle –</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>watching the dog lick herself</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>over and over</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Geoff Pope</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>husband eats his first</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Oyster Burger while the wife</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>(milk)shakes her sweet head</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Amanda Hillenburg</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Social media </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Great for broadcasting chaos </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Without hazard pay</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Who needs milk and eggs? </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Liquor is more important </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Non-perishable!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s1600/asauce.png" style="color: #43ff32; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487878907840985938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s200/asauce.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0898438) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0976563) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 64px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; position: relative; width: 64px;" /></a></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">September 2011 AWESOME SAUCE: Adam Tetelman</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Pounding storms hit hard</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>the students getting hammered</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>straight through the storm's eye</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Soon, before the next</div><div style="text-align: center;">monster storm destroys us all,</div><div style="text-align: center;">send in your haiku.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">highcoupjournal {at} gmail.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-35507314643844485282011-09-01T20:25:00.002-04:002011-09-08T10:19:35.007-04:00Walk a Mile in Her Shoes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIbRJ-WvJ5GN9FIGSA0_dvfMWKgcFybrYuJp66QdBhvO0D_D49BP3bzKGMzOYn14KeeLhh4SIjrzHDbIUdP6-rIOn3NU5cfhzkFijuCTxsgJ6_UcTCGunFfiVeG4mcI07z62Aujpeheyo/s1600/high-heels.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIbRJ-WvJ5GN9FIGSA0_dvfMWKgcFybrYuJp66QdBhvO0D_D49BP3bzKGMzOYn14KeeLhh4SIjrzHDbIUdP6-rIOn3NU5cfhzkFijuCTxsgJ6_UcTCGunFfiVeG4mcI07z62Aujpeheyo/s320/high-heels.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm participating in the 2011 <a href="http://www.walkamileinhershoes.org/">Walk a Mile in Her Shoes</a> in Pittsfield, MA, September 15. And I need your help! Here's a little description of the event:<br />
<br />
<i>Walk a Mile in Her Shoes events are political and performance art with public, personal and existential messages. At a Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event there is no distinction between performer and audience. Our mission is to create a unique and powerful public experience that educates individuals and communities about the causes of sexualized violence, provides them with prevention and remediation strategies and empowers them to further develop and implement these knowledges and skills interpersonally and politically.</i><br />
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Or in other words, a bunch of men put on high heels and walk for a mile in solidarity with all of the wonderful women in our lives.<br />
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Can I get you to donate today? 100% of the funds I get from your PayPal contributions will go to the organization's fight against sexualized violence. Because that's bad, mmm-kay?<br />
<br />
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input name="cmd" type="hidden" value="_s-xclick" /><br />
<input name="hosted_button_id" type="hidden" value="SAYN35FP3Z2UY" /><br />
<input alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" border="0" name="submit" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" type="image" /><br />
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></form>
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FANCY DONATION TRACKER (9/8, 10:20 AM): Right now you've donated $75 so far... add that to the $90 we've raised at work, and we're up to $165 raised to help fight sexualized violence-- keep the donations coming!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-85884535611805945992011-08-31T23:51:00.000-04:002011-08-31T23:51:53.285-04:00September PlaceholderHey all! Just moved yet again (back into the <a href="http://www.draftyatticpress.com/">Drafty Attic</a>), so the September issue of High Coup Journal won't be up at a prompt 12:00 AM... but it will be up on the 1st, probably in the evening.<br />
<br />
Hope you enjoy (when it shows up)!<br />
<br />
--MillerUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-17005772342914637892011-08-01T00:00:00.017-04:002011-08-01T00:00:00.478-04:00High Coup Journal - August 2011 Issue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0h1JR0bolu9TLRyn3peXzu-clP1sG1XLqlsj9flDl7phFCkA9s93odFNp3ZKhfj-yLPCyGEug57W0F3fvR0yrzabNyjzvYkU7CgKkdcrpqqnRq_KjGFzxPK_9CfDziDrYtRfpDNwYnI65/s1600/August+2011.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0h1JR0bolu9TLRyn3peXzu-clP1sG1XLqlsj9flDl7phFCkA9s93odFNp3ZKhfj-yLPCyGEug57W0F3fvR0yrzabNyjzvYkU7CgKkdcrpqqnRq_KjGFzxPK_9CfDziDrYtRfpDNwYnI65/s640/August+2011.png" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">(Photo by <a href="http://djcandidout.deviantart.com/">Ann Wright</a>, Plymouth, IN)</span></i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">IN THIS ISSUE:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://merrilyhauntingfrankfort.blogspot.com/">Brian Barnett</a> (Frankfort, KY)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://slbickley.webs.com/">Sara Bickley</a> (West Carrollton, OH)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Samuel Franklin (Terre Haute, IN)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Annie Perconti (Louisville, KY)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Melissa Reddish (Salisbury, MD)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Morgan Shnier (Tuscon, AZ)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/supertetelman">Adam Tetelman</a> (Troy, NY)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Henry Visotski (Brooklyn, NY)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Editor's Note:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>In a balance scale,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>cries for heat and cries for snow</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>wobble to and fro.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Morgan Shnier</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>i set each alarm</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>five hundred thirty-five clocks</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>i'm still late for work</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Adam Tetelman</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>All chaos breaks loose</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Every man for himself</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The network is down!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Certain doom awaits</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>This requires sacrifice</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Send out the intern</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A pair of black pants</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A lecture at the chalkboard</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A pair of white pants</i></div><div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Brian Barnett</div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;">Bela Lugosi</div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>He does not drink...wine</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Make his a shot of morphine</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Bela feels no pain</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;">Zombie Apocalypse on Sesame Street</div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Burt in riot gear</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Big Bird slain twice by head-shots</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Elmo ate Grover</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Annie Perconti</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>there is a moment</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>between inhale and exhale</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>where all my lies stop.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I already know</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>that the tongue cannot create</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>what I hold for you.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Melissa Reddish</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>He’s the kind of guy</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>who smirks when I eat a peach.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Yes, you know the one.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The rankest odor</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>on the face of this green earth:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A goddamn dog fart.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Henry Visotski</div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Scent of bleach and piss,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Sleeping bum, loud shrew with cell.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Wish I drove to work.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The neighbor’s poodle,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>While neutered as a puppy,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Still molests my leg</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Sara Bickley</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Cappuccino and</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>cigarettes on the hottest</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>day so far this year.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Sunburn stops hurting</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>two days after you get back.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Then it starts peeling.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>After this pack I</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>quit smoking. I will have to</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>drink even faster.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Samuel Franklin</div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Summer Storm</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Torrential rainfall-- </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>helluva water balloon </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>fight up in Heaven. </i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s1600/asauce.png" style="color: #43ff32; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487878907840985938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s200/asauce.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0898438) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0976563) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 64px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; position: relative; width: 64px;" /></a></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">August 2011 AWESOME SAUCE: Sara Bickley</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>All the girls in their</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>summer dresses, showing off</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>their year-round tattoos.</i></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Tryyyyyyy to remeeeeeember</div><div style="text-align: center;">a time in Septeeeeeember when</div><div style="text-align: center;">you sent in haiku!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">highcoupjournal {at} gmail.com</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-64760390148455459062011-07-25T00:02:00.000-04:002011-07-25T00:02:03.335-04:00New Word Order CONTEST WINNER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_lJ6ibGRPOQ5JcgJgLzGFrjPa7OBM7_UXNShYy2qsqHo29elFzq7fceraj-Zm-O4N2JVZGj931oAs_kXlaarv2khQaUdQMYcdUgbLaZ_nxNAzqogeWY0ME6fTDF_hcszoPc7KP5MSCT6/s1600/kickstarter+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_lJ6ibGRPOQ5JcgJgLzGFrjPa7OBM7_UXNShYy2qsqHo29elFzq7fceraj-Zm-O4N2JVZGj931oAs_kXlaarv2khQaUdQMYcdUgbLaZ_nxNAzqogeWY0ME6fTDF_hcszoPc7KP5MSCT6/s320/kickstarter+logo.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Our contest judge, Darla Crist, has officially chosen <b>Toby Bielawski's <i>Five Kinds of Fences</i></b> as the New Word Order Publishing Project winner! Here's what Crist had to say about the book:<br />
<br />
<i>Meaningful poetry manages to be simultaneously universal and deeply personal, and this difficult goal is certainly accomplished in </i>Five Kinds of Fences<i>. This is a highly imaginative collection of poems, perhaps best described in “A Crown of Safe Spaces,” where the poet writes, “It’s as if I’m in a cabin in my head, with one glass wall/Looking out over a setting that changes whenever my pen/Decides to shift mood or meaning…” And indeed, there are reality shifts in these poems, where the audience is asked to reconsider what constitutes a fence, or what would happen if letters were landscapes. Careful attention to form, language, and metaphor directs the work in this collection, even if “Truth is terrain that cannot be steered.” But truth can be found in “Scrap,” where the speaker is sorting her father’s belongings in the basement: “All of this (interstate rebar, toilet-tank float ball)/All of this (fittings, fan blades, copper spike)/Was for all the things you would have fixed/In your depression-era dreams./Now, with nicked hands I sort and deal --/Called all around/It's just a penny a pound for steel.” And truth can be found in “Rectification of Names”: “Resilience is bread broken and shared,/Jealousy the meat and the wine/And patience a stone herm/Listing towards the spine’s left side. /Souls are a thick mystery, mine and/Yours the same, just your mystery/Is a few inches more strange.” Here’s to truth, and here’s to mystery, two key elements in life, as well as in </i>Five Kinds of Fences<i>.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
Here are our runners up:<br />
<br />
<i>A World Called Little Jimmy</i>, by Christine Ong Muslim<br />
<br />
<i>Postcards from the Less than Important West</i>, by Brent Schaeffer<br />
<br />
<i>Randonnées</i>, by Adrienne Drobnes<br />
<br />
We want to thank all 36 people who submitted chapbooks-- your interest has inspired us to look into a reprise of the contest in the future! Additionally, thanks to our contest sponsors:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Great People ($5+)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Jamie Lushbaugh</div><div style="text-align: center;">Chris Dolle</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Awesome People ($10+)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Taylor Lampton</div><div style="text-align: center;">Brad Walrod</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Great Honored Benefactors ($25+)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Tom Carbaugh</div><div style="text-align: center;">Linda Boan</div><div style="text-align: center;">Travis Durbin</div><div style="text-align: center;">Haley Salitros</div><div><br />
</div><div>We couldn't have done it without you. The books will be headed to the printers soon-- stay tuned!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-63912167496637126322011-07-21T00:00:00.055-04:002011-07-21T00:00:07.244-04:00Five Questions for a Folk Hero: Eli Van SickelWe'd like to start off Volume Two's series of community interviews by interviewing a man who straddles the line between fact and fiction, anonymity and pure legend. He's <a href="http://www.facebook.com/elivansickelmusic">Eli Van Sickel</a>, and he's one of the great heroes of the Terre Haute, Indiana, indie folk scene, and he was published in our first issue. (Yes, Terre Haute, the city that gave to the world <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Victor_Debs">Eugene V. Debs</a> and took from the world, by way of the Federal Death Row, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh">Timothy McVeigh</a>.) Let's see what he has to say...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>1. How many songs would you say you've written and performed?</i><br />
<br />
I've written about 20-25 songs since I started playing and writing almost 6 years ago. I've performed most of them live.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>2. What are some similarities between playing acoustic guitar and writing haiku?</i><br />
<br />
There is a spirituality about it that people tend to forget. It is very open to interpretation and the player/poet has incredible creative freedom, though the rules of the style have to be meticulously followed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>3. You're about to begin your master's in Theater at Illinois State University. Are there any types of theater you would associate with haiku? </i><br />
<br />
Well, Japanese theatre, obviously. I am fascinated/intimidated by Noh plays; it's a very dense, beautiful style of theatre that hasn't changed in centuries. I'm also a huge fan of dramatic/poetic realism, minimalistically staged; that kind of stuff really doesn't hand the audience much on a silver platter, but rather requires them to interpret the work.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>4. How will the Legend of Eli Van Sickel read in 20 years?</i><br />
<br />
Hopefully it will say that he is happily married with children, serves as either the artistic director of a non-profit theatre or the chair of a university theatre department, and continues to write and perform music. Also, his books Deaf Theatre In America and The Theatrical Legacy of Clifford Odets are both New York Times Best Sellers. A Tony Award or two would be nice as well.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>5. Do you think Terre Haute's diaspora of wayward artists will ever truly be able to come home?</i><br />
<br />
I think Terre Haute is definitely growing as an artists' home. Slowly but surely, it is becoming safer to "let your freak flag fly," as it were, and create. However, many of us (myself included) find that there's only so much that you can do in Terre Haute and so long you can stay here before it's time to take the next step and move on; but I think you'll find that anywhere.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ELI VAN SICKEL is going to send us a bio. For now, check out his music <a href="http://www.facebook.com/elivansickelmusic">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-4927807980041538302011-07-07T00:00:00.039-04:002011-09-07T22:29:38.598-04:00Editorial: 5-7-5 Does Not Make a Haiku<br />
What's that, you ask? What's that? Why are we printing an editorial almost diametrically opposed to our mission statement?<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, for starters, we here at <i>High Coup Journal</i> have been spoiling for this fight for a long time. But we also want to foster alternate viewpoints, and so we'd like to start off Volume 2 of the journal with a polite but well-researched explanation of everything that is wrong with our lovely journal. Mr. Boyer has proven to be a great sport about all this, and we encourage responses to this editorial, yea and nay. Do some research of your own and dish it right back, and we'll be happy to print your editorial as well!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
This editorial is part one in our continuing battle over the nature of the haiku. Read part two <a href="http://www.highcoup.org/2011/09/editorial-silly-words-serious-words.html">here</a>.</div>
<br />
-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-<br />
</div>
<br />
DAVID BOYER:<br />
<br />
I would like to start by thanking Mike Miller for this opportunity. I’d also like to thank A. Jarrell Hayes. It was my comment on his post at Reddit that got this whole thing rolling. I clicked on the link he provided to the February issue and made the comment that what I was seeing really wasn’t haiku. I said it was more in line with senryu or zappai*. I don’t mean to lessen anyone’s enjoyment of this journal. I just need to stand up for the haiku tradition.<br />
<br />
Haiku is one of the most amazingly powerful verse forms ever invented, but it’s in the unfortunate position of being poorly understood even though everyone thinks they are familiar with it. Part of the blame for this goes to our early education, where the overly simplistic 5-7-5 paradigm was instilled in all of us. I know I stared this way, and wrote 5-7-5 for a long time.<br />
<br />
My interest in haiku took off when I bought a copy of The Haiku Anthology. It was a book full of interesting, vibrant poetry that I didn't have to sweat over, as with the T. S. Eliot or E. E. Cummings that I had been reading. When I started to really get into the anthology, it was a revelation. So many moments where my breath was taken away. You know that moment when you're reading a poem and something just clicks, you have an Aha! moment or maybe you get goosebumps? Haiku was able to give me that again and again. I also saw, for the first time, the breadth and depth of haiku. People wrote in 5-7-5, sure, but there was so much variety that I quickly realized the 5-7-5 structure was not really important.<br />
<br />
Lee Gurga (an award-winning haiku poet, former president of the Haiku Society of America and former editor of Modern Haiku) writes in his Haiku: A Poet’s Guide: “A majority of people among both poets and the general public seems to believe that haiku poetry is synonymous with haiku form, and that anything written in the three-line form they remember from elementary school is automatically haiku.” He then goes on to quote the Japanese scholar Shigehisa Kuriyama, who says “The 5-7-5 pattern by itself does not make a haiku.”<br />
<br />
Gurga also gives the Haiku Society of America definition of haiku in his guide: “A poem recording the essence of a moment keenly perceived, in which nature is linked to human nature. Usually a haiku in English is written in three unrhymed lines of seventeen or fewer syllables.” The “moment keenly perceived” is the important thing here. A haiku is the essence of a moment, the poetry of a moment, in just a few impressionistic brush strokes. In good haiku there is always more unsaid than said:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>clearing out</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>their mother’s house</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>last leaves on the maple</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
--Jack Barry</div>
<br />
This poem give us a picture of the end of things, just moments before the season ends, before the house is no longer really their mother’s house. But in those ends we can see a glimpse of a new beginning, perhaps. The tree that will grow new leaves, the house that may become a home for another family. This is from the most recent issue of <i>Modern Haiku</i>, Volume 42:2, summer 2011. A few more examples may help:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>transit of Venus...</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>something struggles</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>in the orb weaver’s web</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
--Lorin Ford</div>
<br />
It’s a very rare thing to catch a glimpse of Venus moving against the face of the sun, just as it’s a rare thing to see an orb weaver at work with its prey. Visually, we can see the two small orbs, Venus and the spider, moving against the much larger forms of the sun and whatever the spider has caught. Though nature is beautiful in its diversity, we feel the passing of time and shiver.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Christmas</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>at the Playboy Mansion</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>the plastic trees</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
--Gregory Hopkins</div>
<br />
This one hardly needs an explanation. It’s a good showcase of how haiku poets use nature to talk about human nature, and how with subtlety you can say much more than with a direct statement. The poem would be much less of a poem if the poet had said something like<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Christmas</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>at the Playboy Mansion</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>plastic trees and silicone breasts</i></div>
<br />
This version gives too much away, it makes what was implicit explicit and destroys the poetry of the original.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>from the big bang to my funny bone</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
--Christopher Patchel</div>
<br />
I don’t know if I can do this one justice, but as T. S. Eliot so rightly said, “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” To me, this poem, with the laugh of a Buddha becoming enlightened, takes in the entire universe through the perspective of one small bone in one small human body. Banging your funny bone (and seeing stars, no doubt) is related to the Big Bang and suddenly the universe expands through this exquisite and ludicrous pain. That’s one of the real gifts of great haiku and great poetry: the sense of expansiveness, that there are larger things we are a part of. When you finish a great poem, regardless of the length, and you’re left with a wow on your lips or your mind reeling with possibilities and implications, then poetry has done its job.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>a lightning-blasted pine in my pencil the black spine</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
--Peter Yovu</div>
<br />
There is such powerful drama in this piece and such powerful peace. The blasted tree, a rough mirror of the pencil in the poet’s hand, which he uses to memorialize the same tree. And I think the rhyme (it’s quite rare to see rhyme work well in haiku) makes the poem sing.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>panties tossed on the melon rinds wet in spots</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
--Chris Gordon</div>
<br />
The heat of summer, and all that implies, comes through in every syllable. You almost feel a bit breathless reading this.<br />
<br />
<i>High Coup</i> has printed some poems that I think are in the tradition of haiku. Each of the following are carefully and vividly presented scenes, and each leaves you wanting more, asking what else is going on or what led up to this:<br />
<br />
from June 2011:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>A white seagull floats</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>above the turbulent waves</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>of the parking lot.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
--Michael Morris</div>
<br />
February 2011:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Whispering tender</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Terms of endearment in</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>My frostbitten ears.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
--Megan Milligan</div>
<br />
However, reading <i>High Coup</i> I find most of the poems are along the lines of little jokes or fortune cookie type sentiments, that tend to just stop at the end of the line, with little or no resonance.<br />
<br />
William Higginson and Penny Harter in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Haiku-Handbook-25th-Anniversary-Appreciate/dp/4770031130?ie=UTF8&tag=higcoujou-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"><i>The Haiku Handbook</i></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=higcoujou-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=4770031130" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> say that writing a haiku is saying “It is hard to tell you how I am feeling. Perhaps if I share with you the events that made me aware of these feelings, you will have similar feelings of your own.” Haiku don’t tell you how to feel, they show you a scene and hope that you will come along.<br />
<br />
In the end, what I’m trying to say (and what I say to myself every day) is, don’t limit yourself! Don’t settle for just writing jokes and a blind adherence to 5-7-5. Haiku can be so much more.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
DAVID BOYER's haiku have appeared in <i>Frogpond</i>, <i>Modern Haiku</i>, <i>Mayfly</i>, <i>Acorn</i>, <i>bottle </i><br />
<i>rockets</i>, <i>Presence</i>, <i>Heron's Nest</i> and other haiku journals. He was a featured poet in <i>A New Resonance 5: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku</i>.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* “A senryu is a poem, structurally similar to haiku, that highlights the foibles of human nature, usually in a humorous or satiric way. Many so-called "haiku" in English are really senryu. Others, such as "Spam-ku" and "headline haiku", seem like recent additions to an old Japanese category, zappai, miscellaneous amusements in doggerel verse (usually written in 5-7-5) with little or no literary value. Some call the products of these recent fads "pseudohaiku" to make clear that they are not haiku at all.” (From the Haiku Society of America.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-26646368600407617572011-07-01T00:00:00.003-04:002011-07-01T00:00:12.825-04:00High Coup Journal - July 2011 Issue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDZIA3jLPNslyYelLVUn1R9FBPD8LV5oqD4MaJ8eSd4W07v1TSH6KUPQqGB6KioWWDuBMSXpRWTEBH7xfdCeY8SwKxkSxJJw9QsgCAwpJ5wXvCJHzNxyUaC6WbtdQbJvxOVl57rK016LR9/s1600/july+2011+cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDZIA3jLPNslyYelLVUn1R9FBPD8LV5oqD4MaJ8eSd4W07v1TSH6KUPQqGB6KioWWDuBMSXpRWTEBH7xfdCeY8SwKxkSxJJw9QsgCAwpJ5wXvCJHzNxyUaC6WbtdQbJvxOVl57rK016LR9/s640/july+2011+cover.png" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">(Photo by <a href="http://djcandidout.deviantart.com/">Ann Wright</a>, Plymouth, IN)</span></i></div><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">IN THIS ISSUE:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.jamesjdye.blogspot.com/">James Dye</a> (Dubuque, IA)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.jackgranath.com/">Jack Granath</a> (Kansas City, KS)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Amy Harris (West Lafayette, IN)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Lex Joy (Amherst, MA)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Jamie Lushbaugh (Terre Haute, IN)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://therainbowroseezine.blogspot.com/">Amit Parmessur</a> (Quatre-Bornes, Mauritius)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.geoffpope.com/poetry">Geoff Pope</a> (Renton, WA)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://miriamswell.wordpress.com/">Miriam Sagan</a> (Santa Fe, NM)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Mitzi Sicking (Midland, TX)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Editor's Note:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Each birthday a door</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>to new, unseen hallway</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>ending in a door.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Lex Joy </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Philosophy class--</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>One more angry German man</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>says we know nothing...</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Amit Parmessur</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Yellow cars speeding;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Farting thin cancerous clouds</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>like a wintry mouth</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Bonnet on my head,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>As a king on a tall stool</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I watch worlds drying</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>With a toothless mouth</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>My multi-colored moustache’s</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A dusty toothbrush</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Two pharmacy bombs</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>sending me to paradise,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>my doctor to hell</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Geoff Pope</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">“Shit!”</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I heard my mom say</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>“Shit!” only once in her life —</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>door crushed ring finger</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Amy Harris</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Sarah Palin: the</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>evolution of man will</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>not be televised.*</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">* RIP Gil Scott-Heron</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Jack Granath</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Her body sculpted</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>by a summer dress--so much</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>for non-attachment.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>She laughs, the purse strap</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>between her breasts, a lesson</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>in geography.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">James Dye </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>An intense debate</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Does not deserve metaphors!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Fuck! You get the point?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Jamie Lushbaugh</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Your sandpaper tongue</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>licks my face after your ass.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Thanks for the gross bath.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>At Petsmart, select</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The three-figure, plush cat tree.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>He plays in the box</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Um, no, officer.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I don't know whose pot that is.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>You sure it's not yours?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Mitzi Sicking </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Unneeded finger</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>When you, my fellow driver,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Ran the stop sign. Jerk.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Miriam Sagan </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>to escape the smoke</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>as ten thousand acres burns--</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>movie with mermaids</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>cherry blossoms float</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>on the edge of this haiku's</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>silent green pond scum</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s1600/asauce.png" style="color: #43ff32; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487878907840985938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s200/asauce.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0898438) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0976563) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 64px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; position: relative; width: 64px;" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">July 2011 AWESOME SAUCE: Geoff Pope</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>do you suck and chew</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>on tips of the alphabet</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>until your mouth bleeds?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Send birthday money</div><div style="text-align: center;">or at least some more haiku</div><div style="text-align: center;">to assuage your guilt.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">highcoupjournal {at} gmail.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-58799468862292089442011-06-25T00:00:00.014-04:002011-06-25T00:00:03.683-04:00Looking Forward, Looking Inward: Volume 2As we prepare to begin our second year of publication, High Coup Journal would like to take a new direction with its "Five Questions" interviews. For a year we have brought you interviews with haiku-friendly editors and members of a slew of other professions <i>outside </i>our own community, trying to forge connections between this journal and the community at large.<br />
<br />
This year, we'd like to try something different: while we'll still be featuring editor interviews from time to time, we're going to make our main focus catching back up with some of our previous authors and seeing what <i>they're</i> doing these days. We are a community, and we want our community's own voices to be highlighted now.<br />
<br />
So be checking your e-mails shortly! We're going to start assembling a list of people who might like to be interviewed very soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-31367052963742329542011-06-22T21:18:00.001-04:002011-06-22T23:23:07.135-04:00Five Questions for a Poet Laureate: Joan Logghe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5o0TPJhDPPEefjTGIP0YW359IOVydaS7m4cSidhlyyRkhNmfd9ib7AozLBE4tqesoNSAnCZQe3AJ9_6TSdGFTwEaCvfKuTDVCbhZZSUpdXh1plqAh9BoAcH2R2ocVgrvncdqulQUlTpZH/s1600/Week+2+Ibes+sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5o0TPJhDPPEefjTGIP0YW359IOVydaS7m4cSidhlyyRkhNmfd9ib7AozLBE4tqesoNSAnCZQe3AJ9_6TSdGFTwEaCvfKuTDVCbhZZSUpdXh1plqAh9BoAcH2R2ocVgrvncdqulQUlTpZH/s320/Week+2+Ibes+sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
As part of our continuing coverage of Axle Contemporary's "<a href="http://haikuroadsign.blogspot.com/">Haiku Roadsign</a>" display in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we've managed to snag a great interview with the judge of the haiku contest that generated all the poems now found in and around the town. She's <a href="http://thepoemdifferent.blogspot.com/">Joan Logghe</a>, and in addition to being the judge of this contest, she's also the Poet Laureate of Santa Fe! Let's see what she has to say...<br />
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<br />
<i>1. The city of Santa Fe was founded back in 1610, making it the oldest state capitol in America. How far back does the post of Poet Laureate go? Do you still get the traditional "butt of sack" awarded to you?</i><br />
<br />
We just had our big Santa Fe 400 celebration and I was a poetry judge for the student poets who wrote about Santa Fe. Their poems were placed in a time capsule. I am the third Poet Laureate or as I call it PL so it began in 2006. The term is two years and I was preceded by the amazing Arthur Sze and the fabulous Valerie Martinez. No "butt of sack" for me, but ample opportunity for drink, a small stipend, and a full dance card. I have attended more galas and awards dinners than ever in my life. I think a nice case of wine or at least free parking downtown would be a wonderful addition to the PL life.<br />
<br />
<i>2. What sorts of educational activities are you involved in as Poet Laureate?</i><br />
<br />
The educational aspect is one of the considerations in choosing the PL. I have been in the schools for over 30 years, first as volunteer and then it evolved into various Poet-in-the Schools gigs and in one case, Santa Fe Girls' School, eleven years as a poet-in-residence teaching once a week over three years. I am dedicated to enriching a culture of poetry in our community.<br />
<br />
For this PL term I wanted to show young children how I fell in love with poetry and how much fun it is. I selected poems from my youth and beyond and with composer and musician, Jeremy Bleich, made a performance piece called "Joan and the Giant Pencil" after <i>James and the Giant Peach</i>. I used this name because I have been able to borrow a wonderful four foot yellow pencil called "Future" from Kathleen McCloud, a former writing student and awesome artist. The pencil comes to every school or museum or library with us, and I have two great poems about pencils that I found, one by US PL W.S. Merwin (enough initials for you?) and one by a Spanish language poet, Jesus Carlos Soto Morfin. <br />
<br />
I move from poems I loved as a child to Frost and Dickinson and Carl Sandberg and my own poems. There are several bilingual poems as often our audiences have native Spanish speakers. The program is about 50 minutes long and it keeps attention even of very small children. They love Jeremy and the music, and it is interactive so they get to clap out gallops, or echo words as I read the poems. Some of the teachers then write with the students, though they are mostly very busy. We'll be at Santa Fe Children's Museum this July 14th and they are making a poetry festival there.<br />
<br />
I have also done things as diverse as teaching poetry in the Community Gallery f the Santa Fe Arts Commission, at a show called "Mining the Unconscious" this past Saturday to speaking and reading at a variety of poetry or community events. Even if it is my upcoming Fourth of July appearance at the Pancake Breakfast on the plaza, I try and lure folks into loving poetry, or remembering they did as a child.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>3. How did you get involved with the Axle Contemporary group?</i><br />
<br />
I think I sat down in the Gallery/Van early on beside the Farmer's Market site. I knew Jerry Welman vaguely, and then it progressed to casually, and finally it is dearly. Matthew I just met on the van. Both of these men are so visionary and fun to hang out with. Then they asked me to judge the contest, lured only by my new Poet Laureate outfit. I had an insane schedule of things I had said "yes" to. I was feeling a slight 'No" welling up in me. <br />
<br />
Once we met and talked, I knew it would be fun to work together and I could practice playing well with others (I tend to like being my own boss and co-conspirator). I have been to several of the Axle Contemporary openings, not as many as I would like as I live 25 miles north of town and value down time and taking a no-drive day every week. But I was bragging about them to everyone in town, even before I got to know them. i just think the step-van is the coolest idea and fits my art-for-the-people aesthetic, art in daily life ideal. I am a devotee and a van fan.<br />
<br />
<i>4. What challenges do you face when judging a contest?</i><br />
<br />
One reason is I don't like to judge art, though I can be judgmental. I also have taught so many people and have many beloved students. I didn't want to have to choose and make people sad. I have been rejected as much as accepted in poetry. But the judging was anonymous, so that felt right. And haiku is brief, so that helped. The guys also did a preliminary read and sorted into two piles, but truthfully, there were ones in the pile they deemed not as strong that I loved, and so they are going to be on the sign. I am also aware of the total subjectivity of our personal taste.<br />
<br />
We have all the schools of poetry in Santa Fe. It is a thriving poetry scene, so we have a wide range from the abstract language influenced schools to Slam and everything in between. I can think of other haiku poets in town who deserve the job more than I do... Miriam Sagan, a stunning haiku poet for decades, and Charles Trumbull who edits Modern Haiku and is past president of the Haiku Society of America... plus John Brandi, who is another favorite of mine and has made a lifelong relationship with haiku. Yet, I am glad I got the job, and we get to publish all of them which makes it a strong and varied group, from beginners to these seasoned haiku poets.<br />
<br />
Once I got the poems, my husband and I went out to dinner in an Asian fusion restaurant and I ordered a margarita. I read quickly through the entire pile and he reviewed them as well. They were on little strips of paper, some almost like large fortunes, and it was as memorable and pleasant a judging experience as I have ever had. It felt good to do a drive-by reading, and then settle in at home and read carefully the next morning with a sobering cup of black tea. I had them selected within 24 hours. <br />
<br />
<i>5. What are your personal feelings regarding the haiku? </i><br />
<br />
Do you mean "The haiku" as in all haiku, or the haiku submitted for Haiku Roadsign? I think we got excellent work and I tried to choose poems that were crisp, imaged, and respected at least one element of "the Haiku."<br />
<br />
I have a large section of haiku books on my shelves and I am an aficionado, but in no ways an expert. I once gave a friend pages and pages of my haiku and he said I had three true ones. I have been reading these poets in translation and appreciation since the 60s and so that gives me an ear and a sensibility. The thing that surprised me when I read the work submitted was how many poets ignored imagery and the natural world. I felt as if senryu gave too much permission to just talk in abstraction, and missed out on the delicate feeling of a haiku. I think of haiku is as much about heightening awareness, and hearing the reverberation as about what's on the page. I think image is the way in, and the difficult turn, twist, or surprise element was rare in our submissions, but I love when it happens. I also love what my friend Judyth Hill says in a great pantoum from her book Black Hollyhock, First Light: "There's a secret in haiku, I'll tell you / the fourth line is silent."<br />
<br />
Haiku is the form most often taught in schools because teachers see the formula 5/7/5 and mistakenly think it is easy to teach. It is both subtle and sophisticated, and I was surprised that some of my friends whose poetry I love and adore, didn't have the sensibility of spare attention packed language. <br />
<br />
We didn't count syllables, though I love Clark Strand's description of a dying haiku master, on his death bed, counting on his fingers. I also taught a ten year old friend who insisted on counting because it was more challenging. I think selecting the poems we got, choosing 32 of them, was a blast and so much easier that I expected.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
JOAN LOGGHE (Santa Fe, NM) is Santa Fe's third poet Laureate, serving from 2010-2012. She began teaching poetry as a volunteer in her childrens' school thirty years ago. She continues to bring poetry into the schools, serving our young people, and has taught everywhere and to all ages, from Santa Fe Community College to Zagreb, Croatia. This year she was the keynote speaker at Santa Fe High graduation. Her most recent books are <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Singing-Bowl-Burritt-Christiansen-Poetry/dp/0826349862?ie=UTF8&tag=higcoujou-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Singing Bowl</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=higcoujou-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0826349862" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i> from University of New Mexico Press and Love & Death: Greatest Hits, from Tres Chicas Books with Miriam Sagan and Renée Gregorio.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-9155945164196649182011-06-15T00:00:00.010-04:002011-06-15T00:00:00.158-04:00New Word Order Reminder<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_lJ6ibGRPOQ5JcgJgLzGFrjPa7OBM7_UXNShYy2qsqHo29elFzq7fceraj-Zm-O4N2JVZGj931oAs_kXlaarv2khQaUdQMYcdUgbLaZ_nxNAzqogeWY0ME6fTDF_hcszoPc7KP5MSCT6/s1600/kickstarter+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_lJ6ibGRPOQ5JcgJgLzGFrjPa7OBM7_UXNShYy2qsqHo29elFzq7fceraj-Zm-O4N2JVZGj931oAs_kXlaarv2khQaUdQMYcdUgbLaZ_nxNAzqogeWY0ME6fTDF_hcszoPc7KP5MSCT6/s320/kickstarter+logo.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Hey everyone! Just a brief reminder that you have about two weeks to submit to the New Word Order contest. So far we've gotten 16 submissions and are looking to get several more before we're done. Your submissions don't have to be haiku-- our expert judge will show no prejudice but that of blind justice!<br />
<br />
Check out the submission guidelines at the bottom of the page <a href="http://www.highcoup.org/p/submissions.html">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-70765673198496888912011-06-07T00:00:00.005-04:002011-06-13T11:25:37.713-04:00Five Questions for Two Twitterers: Alison Kehler and Kelly Westhoff of Haiku by TwoLet's get ready for Volume 2 of High Coup Journal! As you might have guessed from the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQplY3DGyfNhOYgKC3hUTvXNs4r1-voNGxazvAstgZ8aLMIRVaDYEAW-lHH66w1SL_JFhROu-JtQapweFNGeq1nMXNJnDY80X9CNm55RdPAhSfDiRN3ugmInuOmuf1y88nsNhhnTV_4n9X/s1600/June+2011+hcj.png">June cover art</a>, literary coupling will be something of a theme for this issue: many haiku coupled together into a series, such as in Henry Visotski's "The Death of the (Other) American Dream"; a book composed by two individual authors in distinct but unlabeled collaboration, such as in our upcoming book review; or a daily haiku Twitter feed by two friends, Alison Kehler and Kelly Westhoff. Let's see what the authors of <a href="http://www.haikubytwo.com/"><i>Haiku by Two</i></a> have to say...<br />
<br />
<i>1. So you’re about to hit 900 haiku... that’s like 9 complete hyakuin renga. Seriously, how do you keep it going?</i><br />
<br />
ALISON:<br />
Working with Kelly is the key. I know that I could not do this by myself. And I feel a sense of ongoing conversation doing this with Kelly, which is very motivating. My mother recently asked me, “How long are you going to continue your haiku project?” And I was all like, “What do you mean? We’re going to do this forever!”<br />
<br />
KELLY:<br />
It helps me to have a partner. This way, I’m accountable to someone else. Like a lot of writers, I get my best work done under deadline. For me, Alison is sort of like a deadline. Even if I don’t feel like writing, I know that I have to because I don’t want to let her down.<br />
<br />
However, I think the real key for us is that we didn’t take on this project because we wanted to write haiku. We took on this project because we wanted to keep in touch with each other. Even though haiku is our medium, the whole purpose of <i>Haiku By Two</i> is that the poems are an ongoing conversation between two friends. Many of our haiku are deeply personal, and I think the fact that we’re sharing these touching details of our lives with each other is what keeps us going.<br />
<br />
<i>2. How do you tend to split up the workload?</i><br />
<br />
ALISON:<br />
When I said I could not do this without Kelly, I meant it. She drives the ship and I do my best to keep up with the division of labor. Sometimes I am behind and she sends me a nice email, like, oh…are you still going to review that book? For me, it works. I like piping in with my own artistic insights, but I’m the sort of creative person who needs another person to keep me focused.<br />
<br />
KELLY:<br />
Well, the truth of the matter is that the site is my main mode of procrastination. When I don’t feel like focusing on the other work that I’m supposed to be doing (which happens a lot), I wander over to <i>Haiku By Two</i> and start thinking about ways to update it. Yet I also derive a lot of pleasure from the site, which is probably how it has ended up as my preferred mode of procrastination.<br />
<br />
<i>3. So... sometimes the brain just goes blank. How do you get something to paper (or perhaps to keyboard) in those moments?</i><br />
<br />
ALISON:<br />
We have written many haiku about not knowing what to write about! I think that’s a part of the creative process. There are days in any medium where you feel uninspired and feel you have nothing to add. But I think continuity is the key to any art. So we keep going, we write about “nothing.” Or we suddenly find something when least expected. Or sometimes a haiku is just mediocre. That’s okay, too. It’s part of the process.<br />
<br />
KELLY:<br />
Here’s a haiku I posted on the site back in April 2010:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>haiku-less, that’s me</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I’m all out of fresh ideas</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>haiku-less, that’s me</i></div><br />
<br />
I have gone through several dry spells where I feel like all the haiku I post are insipid or trivial or just plain bad. For me, that’s when I really fall back on that standard 5-7-5 syllable count. All I have to do, I tell myself, is come up with the count and then I can be done. And honestly, sometimes that’s the only way to make it through.<br />
<br />
<i>4. What effect has your poetic relationship had on your writing, and on your lives? Does it extend beyond the blog?</i><br />
<br />
ALISON:<br />
As the mother of a busy toddler, I rarely talk on the phone. Not even with my mom! I feel like I just don’t have the time or the space to have an extended phone conversation with anyone. So for me, <i>Haiku By Two</i> helps me feel like I have an ongoing conversation with a friend. I keep up with Kelly through the poetry and comments on the blog. I definitely feel close to Kelly because of this project. It has me thinking about her every day. I’ll be driving along and I’ll think “Oh, that reminds me of what Kelly wrote,” or I’ll just be sending her good vibes.<br />
<br />
KELLY:<br />
Well...first of all, haiku totally affected my reading choices. We didn’t decide to write haiku because we loved the format. We chose to write haiku because we were drawn to its brevity and straight-forward counting rules. It didn’t take long, though, for haiku to spark my curiosity. Soon after we started Haiku By Two, I was scouring the library for books that would explain the form.<br />
<br />
Those reading choices then affected my writing as I started to look for ways to build in a break or reference a season in a less obvious way than saying “winter.”<br />
<br />
Now, haiku has become a mode of thinking that I often fall into. For example, as I walk my dogs, I’m always on the lookout for some shift in nature that I can incorporate into haiku.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>5. If our readers wanted to start a writing relationship like this, what would be some good pick-up lines?</i><br />
<br />
KELLY:<br />
Well, Alison and I knew each other long before <i>Haiku By Two</i> came about, so neither one of us had to go out and “pick up” a willing blogging partner.<br />
<br />
But, if I were to try to set up something like this again, my advice would be that you really need to figure out what your goal is. If your goal is to share information, then you’ll be looking for a blogging partner with a different set of skills than if your goal is to have an ongoing conversation with a friend.<br />
<br />
I would also recommend that you have clear posting guidelines. For us, it’s really helpful to know that each one of us has to post one haiku every other day. Having a very clear schedule makes it easy to plan ahead.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ALISON KEHLER writes haiku. She also makes soap. And she paints. And she teaches English to adult students. Plus, she is a mom to a busy toddler and a rambunctious puppy. She gathers ideas from each of her roles in life and incorporates them into her tiny poems.<br />
<br />
KELLY WESTHOFF writes haiku when she should be doing something else. Like writing an article for her freelance career or grading papers for the college English classes she teaches. She finds inspiration for her haiku every time she takes her dogs for a walk.<br />
<br />
<div><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-6085443573668565032011-06-01T00:00:00.025-04:002011-06-02T21:30:49.125-04:00High Coup Journal - June 2011 Issue<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQplY3DGyfNhOYgKC3hUTvXNs4r1-voNGxazvAstgZ8aLMIRVaDYEAW-lHH66w1SL_JFhROu-JtQapweFNGeq1nMXNJnDY80X9CNm55RdPAhSfDiRN3ugmInuOmuf1y88nsNhhnTV_4n9X/s1600/June+2011+hcj.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQplY3DGyfNhOYgKC3hUTvXNs4r1-voNGxazvAstgZ8aLMIRVaDYEAW-lHH66w1SL_JFhROu-JtQapweFNGeq1nMXNJnDY80X9CNm55RdPAhSfDiRN3ugmInuOmuf1y88nsNhhnTV_4n9X/s640/June+2011+hcj.png" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Photo by <a href="http://djcandidout.deviantart.com/">Ann Wright</a>, Plymouth, IN)</i></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">IN THIS ISSUE:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://perfectsublimemasters.blogspot.com/">Ian Chung</a> (Leamington Spa, England)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.templecone.com/">Temple Cone</a> (Annapolis, MD)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theidesofmarchjournal.blogspot.com/">Sam Franklin</a> (Terre Haute, IN)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://mnmwrite.blogspot.com/">Michael Morris</a> (Royse City, Texas)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Mark Skrzypczak (Jersey City, NJ)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry">John Tustin</a> (Flushing, NY)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Henry Visotski (Brooklyn, NY)</div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Editor’s Note:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Missing the wedding,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>we blasted the car speakers:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>“No Woman, No Cry.”</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Mark Skrzypczak</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Your entire life</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Is the creative process</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Open your damn eyes</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">John Tustin </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Cooking up something</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>To fill and satisfy me</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The recipe – you</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Waiting for the words</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>My ideas like carrion</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The buzzards circle dolefully</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Ian Chung</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>his belly flattens</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>ridges carved out for someone</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>other than yourself</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>napkin in his car</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>sticky with her red lipstick</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>and his betrayal</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Sam Franklin</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Judas</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Iscariot kissed </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>a man for money--he was </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>a prostitute, yeah? </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Temple Cone </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Dualist, monist,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>we’re all alike under these clothes--</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>lean, tired, scared shitless.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>You mastered walking</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>as an infant and forgot</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>each step thereafter.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Henry Visotski </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">The Death of the (Other) American Dream</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Faded cowboy boots</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>ancient Chevy, never used</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>covered, rusty gray</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>want to trust the myth</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>old weird America is</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>a gas tank away</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>road trip in the sun</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>will the waitress call me “hon”</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>out where cowboys ride?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>so far all I see</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>is Starbucks and Applebee's</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>flanking either side</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>no Nelson or Cash</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>radio plays same old trash</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Gaga, Nickelback</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>someone swiped away</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>the myth, the sweet old cliché</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>somewhere we lost track</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>inner city bound</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>nothing gained, we turned around</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>home with empty hands</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>mission was a bust</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>ancient Chevy gathers dust</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>think I’ll let it stand.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s1600/asauce.png" style="color: #43ff32; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487878907840985938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s200/asauce.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0898438) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0976563) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 64px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; position: relative; width: 64px;" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">June 2011 AWESOME SAUCE: Michael Morris</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A white seagull floats</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>above the turbulent waves</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>of the parking lot.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">School's out for summer;</div><div style="text-align: center;">haiku school has just begun</div><div style="text-align: center;">in each sprig of grass!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">highcoupjournal {at} gmail.com</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-48299314758294044462011-05-21T00:00:00.020-04:002011-05-21T00:00:03.460-04:00Five Questions for a Photographer: Ann WrightIf you've been reading High Coup Journal for any length of time, you may have noticed that little photo credit to Ann Wright. Hopefully you've taken a little time to browse her extensive gallery of photography. What you may not know is that she has also been featured in CNN's iReport and CuteOverload.com. Oh, and we have her here today. Let's see what she has to say...<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>1. What's your favorite subject for photography?</i><br />
<br />
It may sound a bit cliche, but I love doing nature photos. Nature cooperates a lot nicer than human elements for one, but there's so much that we pass by day to day, that we don't notice. I try to bring that to the forefront. You may not notice that tiny purple flower growing out of the crack in the sidewalk, but I do. More recently, snow is playing a huge part in my creativity. Capturing individual snowflakes, a dusting of snow on a branch, it's really the little things in life that matter the most.<br />
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<br />
<i>2. Haiku in a way is like a snapshot composed in words. How do you compare photography to poetry?</i><br />
<br />
Photography and poetry are so similar! Each tell a story from the point of view from the artist. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>With poetry or </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>haiku, we are free to be</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>individuals.</i></div><br />
No matter what form of writing you prefer (haiku, iambic pentameter, freestyle, etc), you get to see the world from someone else's point of view. You feel what they feel. Photography is no different. I focus on things that not everyone can really "see" day to day, I want people to see what I see, to feel what I feel.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>3. You've been published on CNN's iReport and have a gallery on deviantArt. What's the difference between exhibition and publication?</i><br />
<br />
For me, exhibition is almost a first step. You put yourself out there, get feedback, the world is your critic. With publication, you've been chosen. Someone, somewhere appreciates what you've done and has decided to help show the world what you see. Either one is very flattering, but being published is so much more fun!<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>4. How do you differentiate between "artful" photography and the kind of stuff that just ends up in the family photo album?</i><br />
<br />
Family Photo Albums... For people who scrapbook or do the family album thing, those photos are there to capture a moment, a memory in an instant and bring you back to that place. They're kind of like an external filing system for your brain. Take a picture really quick so you can remember what happened. "Art" photography can be similar-- to capture a moment or a memory, but art photography captures the emotion that was attached to the event. Take for instance the famous V-J Day photo taken in Times Square of the sailor kissing a nurse. My father was 4 years old when that photo was taken, my mother not even born yet. Those people are of no relation to me, yet I can feel the sense of elation, joy, of utter celebration in the photo. Compared to that of a simple family album photo, they both may still be meaningful, but have very different empathetic emotions attached to them.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>5. How do you decide on the exact moment to snap the shutter?</i><br />
<br />
Timing is everything! You have to know the machine you're working with-- how fast the shutter clicks in every kind of light and the estimated speed of the subject your photographing. I recently attended a scrimmage of the South Bend Roller Girls, South Bend, Indiana's local roller derby team, where my timing was truly tested. Some are hits, some are misses, and sometimes you're just plain lucky!<br />
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ANN WRIGHT, formerly of Whitehall, Ohio, currently resides in Plymouth, Indiana uses a Nikon P90 Digital Camera. Featured on CNN iReport, CuteOverload.com, and published in the 2010 and 2011 Cute Overload Calendars along with <i>High Coup Magazine</i>. Online galleries can be found on Deviant Art and on Facebook.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-12148104747196753642011-05-07T19:14:00.002-04:002011-05-09T19:55:35.945-04:00Editorial: Why Do We -Ku?<div class="MsoNormal">You might assume that as the editor of a journal devoted to haiku—exclusively to rigidly formalist haiku with a snarky bent, at that—that I am primarily a writer of haiku. A haikuist. A haikuer. A haikunik. Pick a suffix as you will—I don’t think it’ll fit very well. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">My favorite poems are actually the exact opposite of haiku: epics. <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-New-Verse-Translation-Bilingual/dp/0393320979?ie=UTF8&tag=higcoujou-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Beowulf</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=higcoujou-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0393320979" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i>. <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Don-Juan-Lord-Byron/dp/1140073516?ie=UTF8&tag=higcoujou-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Don Juan</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=higcoujou-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1140073516" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i>. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Canterbury-Tales-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199535620?ie=UTF8&tag=higcoujou-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"><i>The Canterbury Tales</i></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=higcoujou-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0199535620" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Vikram Seth’s novel-in-verse, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gate-Vikram-Seth/dp/0679734570?ie=UTF8&tag=higcoujou-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"><i>The Golden Gate</i></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=higcoujou-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0679734570" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Perhaps a bit weird, eh? Perhaps a bit weird to devote a journal to poems three lines long with seventeen syllables each when the poems you love the best are three books long with seventeen cantos each?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Agreed. So why do I -ku?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I started to ask myself that question this past winter. In February, I sent out an e-mail to some past <i>High Coup Journal </i>authors in search of insight, asking them to reflect on the problem for me. Because if there’s anything I’ve learned in my short career in the literary universe, having other people do your work for you is the key to success. Admittedly, some responses were more helpful than others:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>I haiku because<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>spiders ingested my parents<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>this is how I cope.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">--Jacob Glenn</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">(Let it be known that I in no way want to belittle Jacob’s suffering. Descended from the brood of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelob">Shelob</a>, last fell child of Ungoliant, giant spider attacks have been reported as recently as the 2941th year of the Third Age [or the 1341<sup>st</sup> in Shire Reckoning]. Do not think that the destruction of the One Ring and the fall of Barad-dûr will stop them: Shelob dwells in Torech Ungol still.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">More on topic, one author’s response was short, direct, and to the point:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><i>I read and write haiku because I have a short attention span. I also like Japanese culture.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">--A. Jarrell Hayes</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another author sent me a 2,038-word response to my question. That’s 2,038 words written about a form containing 17 syllables. This level of ludicrous awesomeness has officially earned Richard Stevenson of Alberta, Canada, his very own bottle of AWESOME SAUCE:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s1600/asauce.png" style="color: #43ff32; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487878907840985938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s200/asauce.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0898438) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0976563) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 64px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; position: relative; width: 64px;" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">AWESOME SAUCE awarded for EXTREME ANALYTICAL AWESOMENESS:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Richard Stevenson <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I liked Richard’s response because he also managed to extend my question from “Why do you –ku?” to “Why <i><u>would</u></i> you –ku?”, as seen below:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>…here's my question: How can this little art form be so popular -- indeed, I believe it's the most popular form of poetry on the planet, isn't it? -- and yet make no inroads into leading literary journals except those devoted exclusively to haikai poetry? Maybe I'm overstating the case, but </i><i>certainly most litmags in Canada won't touch haiku with a ten-foot pole. They tend to regard it as a five-finger exercise in syllable counting and straightforward pretty description for elementary school kids…</i> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">--Richard Stevenson</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’d expected the other responses to trickle in slowly, but within a week I had nearly a dozen, and they kept coming for a month afterwards. Since <i>High Coup Journal</i> is an e-journal, I wasn’t surprised that a few authors made the logical connections to Twitter and technology:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>To protect against<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>Twitter-based mass marketing<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>Write obscure haiku</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">--Cal Clugston</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>…it's the perfect type of poem for the iPad age. (As a marketing guy, I cannot ignore this fact even though I myself can sit through a three hour movie and not get bored.)</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">--Henry Visotski</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Some centered purely on the fun of hammering out a short poem:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><i>Mainly I -ku because it's fun. It's five-seven-five syllables of a smart aleck. Who wouldn't want to -ku?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">--Mitzi Sicking</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Much as it might damage my art-snob credentials, I have to agree with Mitzi. Part of the allure of haiku (to be specific, bad haiku—and to be even more specific, zappai) is that they’re so fun. <i>High Coup Journal</i> originated as a little game at the <a href="http://isu.indstate.edu/writing/">Indiana State University Writing Center</a>, where my fellow tutors and I passed around a few sheets of paper, collecting haiku as we waded through an endless sea of Nursing 104 papers. (I promise you this: if I read another paper about why someone wants to be a nurse, I may put that someone in a hospital.) </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Kaylin, Elise, Kaiulani, Caitlin Martin (who is currently my associate editor): why did we -ku? Partially because we needed a silent way to poke fun at Pearcy.* Partially because—to be honest—we were bored as hell and it was a witty little word-game to play. And indeed, some of the other contributors to <i>High Coup Journal</i> zeroed in on the “exercise” aspect of the haiku:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><i>I think I enjoy the symmetry of haiku. It requires an agile mind to create the wording and still conform to the pattern. It builds the ability to say a lot with few words.</i></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">--Mike Lushbaugh</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One way the form builds this ability is through repetition, repetition, repetition: </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><i>Of course, as anyone who has fallen in love with the history of the North American English language haiku tradition will tell you, writing haiku is a lot like panning for gold: you write a helluva lot of these little suckers before you get any good, and the ratio of ore to gravel is about 1 to 100, if not 1 to 1,000! </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">--Richard Stevenson (again)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I call this the “Russian Machine-Gun Effect”: accurate or not, if you shoot often enough, you’re bound to hit something. Whereas bullets cost money, though, haiku don’t cost a thing.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For others contributors, the compression of the idea becomes the goal:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><i>While there are many poetic forms I enjoy writing in, the haiku remains my all-time favorite. I call the haiku, "a galaxy compressed in limited space." It's wonderful training for writers who abhor revising their work! Sometimes I will write a poem of, let's say, 30 lines, and then transform it to one of about 15 to 17 syllables. </i></div><div class="MsoNormal">--Salvatore Buttaci</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve always phrased this aspect of form as “The Jell-O Mold Effect”: the ideas are molten and unstable before they are poured, but once you take the raw materials and give them formal support, they congeal into a more enjoyable end-product. As any five-star chef or free-verse poet could tell you, the raw materials have to be good for the end product to be good. But the form is the recipe. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>If you can't say it </i></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>in seventeen syllables </i></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>it ain't worth sayin'. </i></span></i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">--Darcy McMurtery</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The raw materials need to be high quality, but they don’t need to be complex. Haiku, like a recipe for coq au vin, can take simple ingredients and make something delicious:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><i>I have a very concrete answer to that question. About nine months ago, <a href="http://www.shortfastanddeadly.com/">Short, Fast, and Deadly</a> did an all-Haiku issue ("for the love of God, no Haiku" is in their general submission guidelines) and, for some reason, it struck me to attempt it. I wrote two Haiku that day, one was accepted, and at that point it was one of my first acceptances. I very rarely sit down and attempt to write something specific, but that day I did.</i></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>A few months later I had some serious trouble writing anything, but I had fragments of things in my head I thought interesting. I decided if i gave them a rigid structure (like 5-7-5) and kept them short I could make somthing fully realized out of these fragments. I then wrote about a dozen Haiku in a few days. I found the necessity of structure stimulated my creativity. Four of those Haiku appear in High Coup Journal.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Then I stopped writing them. Occasionally I will have a shred of an idea, just something small and clever, and not have a bigger idea to write around it. Some die, some become Haiku.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>I believe, at least for me, that Haiku is a small idea fully realized.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">--John Tustin</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So haiku can be a tool for capturing a fragment of an idea. But some people find the restraints to be of a more pleasurable sort (if you’re kinky like that):</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>I "-Ku" because this particular form of poetry, at least in its classic incarnation, provides an interesting limitation. And as we've seen with music (The White Stripes) and film (any Hitchcock production), limitations can inspire intriguing results. Plus, the haiku is something you can take as seriously as you want. A silly one can be just as good - and fun - and a genuinely pretty one.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">--Henry Visotski (again)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Perhaps the point of the haiku—especially the formal haiku—is the inspiring struggle against the restraint. The restraint of form does not hold back emotion but rather creates it in the mind of the author, creating a level creative climax not possible in total freedom. The oppression of the body of writing…</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">…mmmwait a minute. I should probably stop writing too much more on this thought. Whilst “sizzlin’ hot word-bondage” might be fun amongst consenting adults, even High Coup Journal has some dignity.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">(But seriously, if you want me to write more on this thought, I can give you my private phone number.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Aaaaaaaaanyway…</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I got a lot of good responses to my question, and I want to thank everyone who contributed. So why do I –ku? Reading the responses and taking the time to reflect on it, I think maybe it’s <i>because</i> I love the epic. The epic is the movie. The movie is a series of still images sped up to create the illusion of motion. Slow the movie down and the illusion fades into the still images truly at work. Haiku is a single frame in the epic of life, a single snapshot pulled a hectic world, and regardless of whether it involves jumping frogs or cherry blossoms, the haiku is our world in atomic form. As it was perhaps said best,</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>A bad haiku is<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>a poetic primal scream<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>uttered in three lines.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">--Amy Harris</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">* Pearcy, you're a good man. I wish you bolf a happy tomorrow and a happy lifetime. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-37528536180701202452011-05-01T00:00:00.025-04:002011-05-02T19:06:43.493-04:00High Coup Journal - May 2011 Issue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-EsEts53VGOA37TsXVN-7w6yPyTJhts_PIBP11ziEl5v6xlLrebse29wE5AEjqoVsrgW7KXwQuBbqi4ZELA0QPh4-s6EXDORpyLU-9d1uUoIQttVn_EHLh1ui5X66gzHSFlASL8j8Aby1/s1600/May+2011+HCJ.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-EsEts53VGOA37TsXVN-7w6yPyTJhts_PIBP11ziEl5v6xlLrebse29wE5AEjqoVsrgW7KXwQuBbqi4ZELA0QPh4-s6EXDORpyLU-9d1uUoIQttVn_EHLh1ui5X66gzHSFlASL8j8Aby1/s640/May+2011+HCJ.png" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Photo by <a href="http://djcandidout.deviantart.com/">Ann Wright</a>, Plymouth, IN)</span></i></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">IN THIS ISSUE:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://slbickley.webs.com/">Sara Bickley</a> (West Carrollton, OH)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/26u8huk">Salvatore Buttaci</a> (Princeton, WV)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Samuel Franklin (Terre Haute, IN)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Rick Hartwell (Moreno Valley, CA)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Danielle Johnson (Clemente, CA)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Lex Joy (Durham, NH)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Taylor Lampton (New Brunswick, NJ)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Lauren McBride (Houston, TX)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Stephen Miller (Stockbridge, MA) </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://phoenixpoet.info/">Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory</a> (Jersey City, NJ)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Robert Petras (Toronto, OH)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry">John Tustin</a> (Flushing, NY)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.itslovelyannie.com/">Annie Welch</a> (Louisville, KY)</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Editor's Note:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>May, I ask you this:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>where do you store all the joy</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>winter hid away?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Sara Bickley</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Standing humming hymns</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>outside the confessional</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>with the leaky door.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Dropped my cigarette.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Is it clean enough to smoke,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>or does it matter?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">John Tustin</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>You still live with him</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>And I still sleep next to her</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Good thing I’m patient</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Lex Joy</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Thesis proposal.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> Which work of literature</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> will I learn to hate?</i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">Taylor Lampton</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">The Undergrad Thesis Shuffle </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>Reading. Reading. Notes.</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>Hypothesis? Nope! Again!</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>Reading. Reading. Notes.</i></div><div><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Stephen Miller</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>You have enemies?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>We can address that problem...</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Nukes cure lots of things!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Salvatore Buttaci</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>claustrophobia</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>in this tight economy</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>can be stifling</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>old man knitting brows,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>lean on your question-mark cane.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Life’s a mystery.</i></div><div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Danielle Johnson</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Stuffed Toy Cemetery</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Seams busted open</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Gloomy pile of marred plush toys</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Tobin chews and chews</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Robert E. Petras</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">from "Redneck Haiku"</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Second amendment</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Tree-hugging sums-a-bitches</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Mullet with crosshairs.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Annie Welch</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Bourbon Haiku</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The coming of fall</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>whispered in mid August as</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>corn turns to liquor</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>When I feel too seen</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I can write in third person</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>as she finds shelter</i></div><div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Lauren McBride</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>homo sapiens</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>are LGBT labels</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>so damned important?</i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Samuel Franklin</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">3:30 a.m.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Early morning Haute </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>with sleepless, stupid deskjob--</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>you may kiss my ass. </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">This is important</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>My fecal matter </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>matters a lot--but the smell</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>kills my gray matter.</i></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Rick Hartwell</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>good haiku is like</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>tasty tidbits offered up</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>inviting your dreams</i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s1600/asauce.png" style="color: #43ff32; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487878907840985938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sHOcxfsrKCeIiI6Q0i2KaHu3aGZ_tL2NlMy-y-KNcalulAJzuAhyPCxXYa0W80OGCKNv11rQyOS87b885w69QXIhPoCyM9-ObCz2YjaBA53OoEwmGQ1EGwRO36szDExELxGfuWoRjOUi/s200/asauce.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0898438) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0976563) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 64px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; position: relative; width: 64px;" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">May 2011 AWESOME SAUCE: Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Judy Blume</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Are you there, God? It's</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>me, Adam-- Margaret got</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>knocked up. What's cracking?</i></div><div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-oOo-</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Now that spring has sprung,</div><div style="text-align: center;">those haiku that spring to mind</div><div style="text-align: center;">should be sprung to us!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">highcoupjournal {at} gmail.com</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-61080103662400372382011-04-21T00:00:00.034-04:002011-04-21T00:00:06.842-04:00Five Questions for a Scientist: John ChoThis month's "Five Questions" is with MIT Lincoln Laboratory scientist and <a href="http://web.mit.edu/jync/www/spam/">SPAM Haiku Archive</a> Master Emeritus (SHAME) John Cho. The Archive is no longer accepting submissions, but it's certainly worth browsing or checking out the printed book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spam-Ku-Tranquil-Reflections-Luncheon-Loaf/dp/0060952784?ie=UTF8&tag=higcoujou-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"><i>SPAM-ku</i></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=higcoujou-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0060952784" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Let's see what he has to say (now, in haiku form)!<br />
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<i>1. Did the SPAM-ku phenomenon originate with you, or were these poems already floating around the Internet before you got involved?</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Forwarded e-mail</div><div style="text-align: center;">Anonymous SPAM haiku</div><div style="text-align: center;">Origin unknown</div><div><br />
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<i>2. What finally forced the SPAM-ku archive to close its doors to new submissions?</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Job, marriage, children</div><div style="text-align: center;">Spring, summer, autumn, winter</div><div style="text-align: center;">Job, marriage, kids, cat</div><br />
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<i>3. Could you explain for us-- preferably in 17 syllables-- what anisotropic scaling turbulence is? What relation does it have to wind shear?</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Gravity-flattened</div><div style="text-align: center;">Big whorls have small whorls that lead</div><div style="text-align: center;">To a viscous grave*</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
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<i>4. Where do contrails come from?</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Jets spew wet vapor</div><div style="text-align: center;">Condensation nuclei</div><div style="text-align: center;">Blue-sky Etch A Sketch</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
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<i>5. How does a knowledge of poetry influence a scientist (and vis versa)?</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Poems have spanking</div><div style="text-align: center;">Signal-to-noise ratios</div><div style="text-align: center;">When tuned to the truth</div><br />
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* Apologies to Lewis F. Richardson<br />
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JOHN CHO supplied his bio in haiku form as well:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i>JFK shot down</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>JNC born in Tokyo</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Makes Boston his home</i></div><br />
You can find his CV at his MIT page <a href="http://web.mit.edu/jync/www/">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-485297094665004722011-04-20T20:22:00.000-04:002011-04-20T20:22:16.395-04:00Miami University HOOOOOOOOOO!A bit of slightly belated but awesome news: our associate editor Caitlin Martin has received a teaching assistantship at <a href="http://www.miami.muohio.edu/">Miami University</a> in Oxford, Ohio! We're darned proud of her and hope to see a new crowd of Miami-ites.... Miami-ers... um... Buckeyes? No, that's Ohio State. Well, whatever people who go to Miami are called, we're proud she's one!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-824904892689953343.post-36858882906881863392011-04-18T01:30:00.000-04:002011-04-18T01:30:44.761-04:00New Word Order Chapbook Details<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_lJ6ibGRPOQ5JcgJgLzGFrjPa7OBM7_UXNShYy2qsqHo29elFzq7fceraj-Zm-O4N2JVZGj931oAs_kXlaarv2khQaUdQMYcdUgbLaZ_nxNAzqogeWY0ME6fTDF_hcszoPc7KP5MSCT6/s1600/kickstarter+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_lJ6ibGRPOQ5JcgJgLzGFrjPa7OBM7_UXNShYy2qsqHo29elFzq7fceraj-Zm-O4N2JVZGj931oAs_kXlaarv2khQaUdQMYcdUgbLaZ_nxNAzqogeWY0ME6fTDF_hcszoPc7KP5MSCT6/s320/kickstarter+logo.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div>Just a heads up: there are now some details of the New Word Order Chapbook Contest on <a href="http://www.highcoup.org/p/submissions.html">our submissions page</a>. Also: still 13 days to <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/187710313/new-word-order-publishing-project">contribute to the effort</a>!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0