Tag Archives: Haiku

February 28, 2016

Dictionary Word of the Day Haiku Challenge 1

By Kat Myrman

image

NEW! Word of the Day Haiku Challenge!

Some of you have expressed interest in participating in my weekly Word of the Day Haiku Challenge based on Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day. Back when I took the Blogging 101 Class this idea was born as a result of one of the assignments. I mentioned this new challenge in a “soft launch” on my Friday WOTD post (You can see it HERE.) PJ Priceless Joy gave it a go on Saturday! I would love to see a taker for each day of the week. Not only is it fun, but its a great way to learn new, interesting, and often rarely used words!

A (short) Week of Word of the Day Haiku

Friday

Internecine (Dictionary.com)
Polarized rivals
Engage in futile stances,
internecine wars
kat / like mercury colliding

Saturday

Natter (Dictionary.com)
bitter natter
I should not let it matter
It drives me insane.
Priceless Joy / Beautiful Words

Thanks PJ! Hopefully we will have company next week! 🙂

If you’d like to join us here are the rules:

Word of the Day Haiku Challenge

1. Pick a day that works for you. Once you pick your day, stick to it. This is what makes it fun and quite a challenge.

2. Choose an online dictionary that features a word of the day. I use dictionary.com but there are others. Pick your go-to dictionary.

3. Create a Haiku using the word of the day. In this challenge, no synonyms allowed.

4. A Haiku is a three line poem with the syllable structures 3-5-3 or 5-7-5.

5. (Optional) If you want, you may also post a expanded history of the word, your thoughts about the word, or some unusual facts about the word of the day.

6. Post a link to your Haiku in the comments so I can find you.

7. I’ll post the weekly roll call list on Sunday. So you have until Saturday at midnight (EST) to post your haiku.

8. Have fun!

I’m renaming this weekly post Word of the Day Haiku. Hope to have at least one haiku for each day of the week. I’m looking forward to reading your Word of the Day Haiku!

18 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Word of the Day Haiku

February 27, 2016

Word of the Day Haiku

By Kat Myrman

Happy Friday! Well, I almost made it. Friday’s Dictionary.com Word of the Day is Internecine. It originated in the Mid 17th century (in the sense ‘deadly, characterized by great slaughter’): from Latin internecinus, based on inter-‘among’ + necare ‘to kill’. (From the Oxford Dictionary)

Once again Friday’s word of the day relates well to our current political discourse in the US…or rather the lack thereof! 

We have become so polarized that the idea of compromise, of civil debate or the rational exchange of ideas, is all but impossible. Being passionate for a cause is certainly a noble thing, but one runs the risk of developing tunnel vision.

We need each other. We need our differences of opinions, beliefs and ideals. We need to be able to debate the issues that are important to us while respecting each others’s passions. Making room for others doesn’t limit us. It expands us. 

When it comes to Friday’s word of the day, internecine, it’s quite probable that nobody will win in the end  and we will simply  grow more and more distant and isolated. 

And so, the Haiku…

Polarized rivals
Engage in futile stances,
internecine wars

kat ~ 27 February 2016

NEW! Word of the Day Haiku Challenge!


If you’re interested, here’s a chance for you to have the exciting challenge of creating a Haiku based on a Dictionary word of the day. If enough of you are interested I will post it at the Commons. For your efforts I will do a weekly calendar roll call broken into each day with a link to your Haiku. Here are the rules:

Word of the Day Haiku Challenge

1. Pick a day that works for you. Once you pick your day, stick to it. This is what makes it fun and quite a challenge.

2. Choose an online dictionary that features a word of the day. I use dictionary.com but there are others. Pick your go-to dictionary.

3. Create a Haiku using the word of the day. In this challenge, no synonyms allowed.

4. A Haiku is a three line poem with the syllable structures 3-5-3 or 5-7-5.

5. (Optional) If you want, you may also post a expanded history of the word, your thoughts about the word, or some unusual facts about the word of the day.

6. Post a link to your Haiku in the comments so I can find you.

7. I’ll post the weekly roll call list on Sunday. So you have until Saturday at midnight (EST) to post your haiku.

8. Have fun!

I’m renaming this weekly post Word of the Day Haiku. Hope to have at least one haiku for each day of the week. I’m looking forward to reading your Word of the Day Haiku!

22 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Essays, Haiku, Poetry, Word of the Day Haiku

February 21, 2016

Monkey Brain

By Kat Myrman

 

Photo from Pixabay.com

 
My crazy monkey brain!
Prone to incessant word churn.
So I write Haiku!

kat ~ 21 February 2016

Happy Year of the Monkey! A haiku for Haiku Horizon’s prompt: Monkey. If you would like to read others or enter your own, click HERE.

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Haiku, Humor, Poetry, Uncategorized

February 19, 2016

Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku – Cosmology

By Kat Myrman

cosmology

Happy Friday! Today’s Dictionary.com Word of the Day is Cosmology. Originating from the Greek words kosmos (order/world) and –logia (discourse), it might surprise you to know that astronomers, philosophers and even astrologers have been studying Cosmology since ancient times. Through the years, mathematicians, engineers, physicists and even religious figures and politicians have weighed in on the ever evolving theories and philosophies of Cosmology. Here are a few names that you may recognize:  Plato, Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Henrietta Swan Leavitt (one of the first women to enter the field of astronomy), Edwin Hubble, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

One of the most popular theories, of course, is the Big Bang Theory, but the evolution of the study of Cosmology has not stopped there. Other theories to be introduced in later years include the Oscillating Universe developed by Alexander Friedmann based on Einstein’s general relativity equations, the Steady State Universe (which opposed the Big Bang) and then a number of theories that have expanded on the Big Bang including, Inflationary Universe and Multiverse theory which see our organized, observable universe as one of many in an infinite cosmos that operates basically in a state of chaos.

The one thing we can know for certain is that as long as there are universes to discover, there will be great minds who seek answers to the questions, what, where, when, why and how. As for me, I prefer to gaze at the stars, become lost in their magnificence, and write poetry. BAZINGA! 🙂

Speaking of poetry…here’s my Haiku…

Theory not faith
Informs the Cosmologist
Starting with a Bang!

kat ~ 19 February 2016

 

 

18 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Essays, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Word of the Day Haiku

February 12, 2016

Calumniate – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

By Kat Myrman

columniate

From Wordnik:
Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition:
transitive v. To make maliciously or knowingly false statements about. See Synonyms at malign.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License:
To make hurtful untrue comments about (someone)

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
To utter calumny regarding; charge falsely and knowingly with some crime or offense, or something disreputable; slander.

Synonyms:  Defame, asperse, slander, scandalize, slur, vilify, smear, libel, malign

Etymologies:
-Latin calumniārī, calumniāt-, from calumnia, calumny; see calumny.(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
-From Latin calumniātus, perfect active participle of calumnior (“I accuse falsely”). (Wiktionary)

Happy Friday and welcome to Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku. Today’s word from Dictionary.com is “Columniate”. I had never heard this word before today, but I find it most useful in describing the activities of candidates in the current U.S. political climate.

There are all sorts of untrue, and bordering on slanderous, statements being tossed around by candidates and their campaigns to gain advantage over a rival.  And it is so easy to be swept up into the fear-based frenzy of twisted statements. While it is a good practice to follow the adage, “If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn’t”, in the political arena it seems a good idea to follow an opposite thought as well, “if it’s too awful or outrageous to believe…it is likely unbelievable.”

and now for a bit of a rant…
Sadly the average person cannot be bothered with checking sources for truthfulness of a particular claim. This is a fatal flaw in our political process, but also a tool well played by campaigns to gain the advantage over opponents. I am always interested to know how our politicking looks to people in other countries. If I am seeing an emperor with no clothes, I can only imagine what those removed by continents and oceans must think. And I want the world to know, not all of us are unthinking lemmings here.  Though sometimes it does feel as though the lemmings are growing in number…and they’re headed for the cliff’s edge!

Have a great weekend. Be kind to one another. No columniating allowed! 🙂

 

Calumniate – The Haikus

Inept candidates
Columniate their rivals
proving their own lack.

Calumniated
Disdained and disrespected 
She had the last laugh.

The incompetent
employ calumniation
to appear able.

kat ~ 12 February 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Word of the Day Haiku