hay naku haiku

Its been a long, long while since I ever wrote anything literary...I think I've forgotten that part of my life way back when I was a teenager.

In high school at STC, words were powerful, fun and were something I wasn't comfortable muttering out loud since I had a tendency to speak very fast - jumbling my speech since my mouth couldn't catch up with what I thought I wanted to share. Still, I enjoyed English subjects and didn't shirk my duty as a student when we had to turn in our random written English assignments.

In college at CIT, words were superflous, unimportant, and fleeting to me...except when they became part of a computer program. One didn't think about diction, rhythm, rhyme or the resulting impact on the heart and thoughts on people who read one's scribbles. One only had to think of logic and reason and syntax although structure was important in a way. I left behind my habit of reading classics and novels, and concentrated on poring over lines and lines of code. Debugging was some thing I enjoyed..especially if it was other people's programs.

Did you ever see this comic strip featuring a programmer-applicant and his interviewer? The latter said the programmer was superlative in Cobol, Pascal, Fortran and C (well, during my time, those where some of the languages we gave instructions to the computer!) Too bad he was "lousy" in English. Sometimes I feared being lumped into a particular segment of software developers - tolerably good in coding and logic; and tolerably passable in English.

Now and then though, I become nostalgic, and I wonder wistfully whatever happened to the copies of the bunch of poems, stories, anecdotes I had submitted in our English classes more than 2 decades ago. I liked limericks, I liked puns. I enjoyed breaking into Walt Whitman's "O Captain, my Captain! our fearful trip is done;" once in a while. I enjoyed a little bit of Shakespeare and a little bit of Robert Browning. I read Canterbury Tales in the loo. Ok, so I read Nancy Drew too.

I enjoyed various pieces of works but it wasn't something I put a whole lot of my mind into. Some people could ponder and ruminate about great works and I? I was content just standing by and listening slash reading these words. At worst they floated like a wavering ghostly figure past my ears...at best they left a very subtle footprint on my cerebral cortex. Pfft!

I write this now since I had the urge to type about something I felt 10 minutes ago. I felt I missed going back to scribbling words on random pieces of paper and sticking them in various places. I wanted to write haiku at 2 in the morning, because when prompted, I can only remember one I wrote during my high school graduation...maybe because it meant something personal to me then. Since life at that point seemed to be complicated and exciting, full of various adventures and trails unknown. I wanted to express how I thought all the years of schooling (and waking up early!) culminated at last in that grand transformation. I was a young lady primed to go into the world of....college.

That haiku went this way -

green caterpillar,

spinning a silver cocoon....

metamorphosis!

At this moment though, I just want to randomly write more 5-7-5 lines because my work nowadays seem so far away from any creative leaning. I feel like I am slipping...into a world of contracts, timelines, milestones, engagement margins - everything is so cut and dried! so... so...blah! Hmm...how descriptive of me...is that the best adjective I can come up with?

Wait...wait...I am determined! Before I sign off, I must come up with one haiku! Maybe that will jump-start my brain. Maybe that will get my creative juices flowing. Maybe that will balance out my mind? Or maybe I can just say ..never mind the 5-7-5-7-7...just write the darn thing before your muscles lock in this position in front of your laptop!

Well, here goes nothing - let's give it a shot then - it is not as if I was aspiring to become an award-winning writer...I just need another outlet once in a while so I can find my swing.

first raindrop trembles

poised on a withered leaf-tip..

falling on a frog -

slide and disappear into...

the cracked lips of thirsty Earth.

In tribute to my love of frogs, the rainy weather we are having and to Mother Earth.

Mommy! I miss your cooking! (segue into food..as usual..)