Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion

Al, a weekend to remember! Popped ribs, missed opportunities, forgotten luggage, unexpected inner city tour, music confusion, near death near collisions and a crunched bird! All and all, sounds humanly delightful — on hindsight.

Funny you had a bird die that way, because you are the first person I've met who has mentioned this. Within an hour of getting my first driving lesson with 'Young Drivers' a robin killed himself on my windshield at my eye height. The instructor had never experienced that before. Several years later, while driving on the freeway in a 1 ton delivery truck on a hot simmer day, a bird hit my side vent window and bounced off my chest, filling the cab with feathers that floated around. Now that was weird!

Oh! Welcome back. I am sure you were missed! LoL.

Jan wrote: "A man floats dreamily
Upon the ocean
Searching for a cork."

I really enjoyed this one Jan! Excellent.

Playing from the 'cork' one.


From the man's right hand
Floating in the sea of rye
The cork asked him why.

Thanks, Guy, you realised that it referred to one of M's comments previously about trying to remember where he read something?

Yup I did — I caught the reference immediately. And I think I caught the allusions you made with the second one. But I liked your cork poem better as inspiration. Sigh. I slight cheat, but not an unheard of one, in this odd little game called Haiku.

“Maybe I need to
get some new glasses,” said he.
“I can’t tell you why,

blithe or married, all
the lasses smile at me when
comin’ through the rye.”

It was the wry smile,
wan and sardonic with rye
that attracted girls.

The girls who liked him
liked him before they new him
but not long after.

Guy, what a wit you have! The girls didn’t like him long after they got to know him. I’ve got an early day tomorrow, but I look forward to catching up on this thread tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks, M. I've got my installment to complete! It's almost done, but the weekend has been seriously interrupted, and I've been easily distracted. Good night!

[This one continues from 1760:]


A short time later
Alone and also lonely
His smile went awry.

I stare at the screen
Thinking--real hard--what to type
My virgin haiku...

Nice, A_x!

LOL!!!

Words flit out my mouth
And run fast across the screen
Words only I get

Okay, here we go.
I think in silence
The answer to everything
Can't be forty-two.

I kinda got that from A Hitchhiker's Guid to the Galaxy. Oh well.

LOL, I've been meaning to read that book since forever.

You must be joking
When you say the universe
Is plain and simple.

Blech. Too sentimental for my taste. I'm taking five.

(...and hangover too!)
An instant poet I am
Beer is such a Muse

Hookay...so 1769 was actually a follow-up to 1766. And somehow didn't see 1767 & 1768?! Argh...sorry.

By the way nice way to relate with '42', Michelle.
Kyra, you OUGHT to read more of Douglas Adams. ;)

I am officially lost. I'm trying to figure out what the heck is going on and I-I just can't! So here's a haiku for my confusion

My eyebrow raises
Why, why this coded language?
I sigh my distress

Violet, distressed?
The language is not coded
Just...um...confusing.

Kyra laughs out loud
For she understands Violet's
Confusion firsthand

Watching Barter Kings
As I read the responses
I practically die

Reading the words on
This flashing computer screen
I can't help but laugh

I am tired today. I'll give this another shot later.

Hur, hur and hur, hur.
Violets: blue--sad or dead?
Alright, take your pick.

I am not the three
For I am neither a smurf
Depressed, or dead A_x

Why are we writing
All our responses like this?
It hardly makes sense.

Yeah Kyra is right
We are total lamos guys
Well, it's sorta fun

And hilarious
I bet no one else at school
Will talk in haiku

(And therefore, we rock!!!! XD)

(haha, yes! OMG that would be awesome to convince your English teacher to do!)

Obviously Ky
No one is as cool as us
We totally rock

Sure, we will rock you
So roughly the world shatters
Haiku perverted

The aliens come
Shattering the universe
Into tiny flecks.

BAM! Haiku!

I think I may be
Extraterrestrial life
Since I'm not normal

Kyra beat me to it! This is a reply to #1783.


Nothing was left but
tiny flecks, a few shreds of
a string bikini,

a few frames of the
old Star Treks, a torn still from
I Dream of Jeannie.

Empty. Nothingness.
Dream a little dream of me.
...wait, that's a nightmare!

[Reply to Kyra's]

The mother ship calls
I try to communicate
The humans in fright

(Reply to 1786)

Do not fall asleep
You'll get hurt-or even killed
Because of Freddy.

Stupidest haiku ever, but who cares.

That is the magic
Magic of haikus Michelle
Because no one cares

Bloodstained sharp razors
Eternity to clean up
"I do. I do care."

When one starts droning
On and on tirelessly
It is hard to care

Who likes verbal goop?
I know! Everyone who’s in
the Poetry group.

I'm actually in
The Poetry group, but I
Don't participate.

And LOL to you, M. XD

To be a member
of the group of regal verse
you must like goo too.

At least that is true
of me, because I'm in and out
with the verbal Pooh!*

*And of course I am referring to a bear who likes honey.

Pooh went online and
posted a verse extolling
the joys of honey,

in rhyming couplets,
and--what was much worse--it was
urbane and funny.

LoL! M, again, very funny! Laughter, the best way to start my work day. Thank you. Still laughing.

Thanks, Guy!

Thank you, Alex! I just try to keep up with Guy.

M, you have that backwards! It is I struggling to keep up with you.

Guy, your haiku made me think of Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh, which I see I no longer have.

LoL! I was indeed thinking of The Tao of Pooh when my odd mind created that Haiku-abomination. I still have a copy, if you'd like to borrow it. I think it a rather delightful book, and Hoff I think made his case that Milne's writing was indeed Taoist.

I had to go get gas for the mowers. Now I’m back for a moment. Have you ever read The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow?

I have not. [Pause to do a quick look.]

Wow, another book to add to me stack. Thank you for mentioning it. I'll see if I can get this from my local used bookstore or library.