IVP - Strangely Dim - Haiku a Go Go

Haiku a Go Go

This bit of dim strangeness brought to you by David A. Zimmerman.

If you work in a publishing environment, you've probably come across more than your fair share of word magnets. You know what I'm talking about--random words, some Shakespearean, some borderline inappropriate, some necessarily mundane, that you arrange and rearrange on your refrigerator or some other metallic surface. IVP has two refrigerators in its corporate kitchen, and consequently we have two sets of word magnets in common use. That's the nature of publishing: our entertainment can tend toward the nerdy.

But wait--you don't know the half of it. The editorial department--the "nerdy of nerdies," you might say--meets every week for a popcorn break, and each time someone selects a random "word of the day" to listen for in conversation. The person who uses the word (unwittingly, as it's kept secret) wins a candy bar. If no one uses the word, the treat goes to the person who came up with it. Demented and sad, but social.

This summer we archived our entries--which is a good thing, since we're now four people fewer than we were at the start of the summer. Two interns have come and gone since then, and two of our colleagues have left for new jobs in allegedly greener pastures. All we have left of these four are wistful memories and randomly selected words--both of which are good grist, in my estimation, for haiku.

So, since we're in the midst of haiku-palooza here at Strangely Dim, I'd like to invite you to take a stab at crafting a haiku using as many as possible of the words listed below. Since apparently our editorial department doesn't like verbs, I'm afraid you'll probably need to draw from outside this mix to craft anything coherent.

Here's the list of words, followed in parentheses by the people who picked them. You may find you identify with one or two of us more than others. Remember that haiku are constructed in three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. Or something like that.

• anyways (Nathan Baker-Lutz)
• multivitamin (Elaina Whittenhall)
• obelisk (Christa Countryman)
• addiction (Jim Hoover)
• utterly (Kasey Durbin)
• camping (Lisa Rieck)
• purple (Rachael Hubin)
• au revoir (Rachael Hubin)
• pinto (Jeff Reimer)
• bulbous (Mike Gibson)
• castles (Gary Deddo)
• international (Allison Rieck)
• anniversary (David Zimmerman)
• potter, potting, pot (Andy Le Peau)
• fingernail (Ellen Hsu)
• Kennedy (Jeff Reimer)
• political (Ryan Peterson)

Go get 'em, partners.
I am fully confident
that you'll be clever.

Posted by Dave Zimmerman at September 15, 2009 11:06 AM