011. haikus.
I am physically and mentally exhausted, but I cannot bring myself to actually go to sleep. I think it has something to do with nerves (the much-anticipated visuals walkthrough is in a few hours), but it could simply be because I’m having trouble shutting my brain off.
Recently, COM 494 has been an odd source of inspiration for me, prompting a deluge of haikus to flow from my pen one week and a partial poem another. I think it’s the unusual amount of downtime my brain has in that class; in my three-hour HST 306 class, I have to keep my brain engaged in the lecture 100% of the time so as to not appear an idiot when the professor calls on me. In COM 494, the mental demand isn’t quite on the same level, and Karen often asks questions that naturally prompt my mind to wander.
And so, I write. Haikus, poems, bits of prose, whatever my brain is thinking, I put it down on the notebook in front of me. Flipping through these pages would reveal the strangest narrative to one not well-acquainted with the last three months of my life, but for those in the know it’s just another set of details to juggle with everything else.
A few of those haikus are worth sharing. It should be noted that anything I share (both in this post and in the future) that is of a “creative” nature (short stories and poetry included) should be taken with a grain of creative salt. While some of these creations are fully truthful, there are equally as many that employ quite a bit of creative liberty. And, no, I won’t disclose which ones bend the truth and which ones follow it. That’s part of the fun.
My haikus don’t have a name, though they certainly follow a theme. Enjoy.
looking over the
glittering Phoenix skyline
you kissed with meaning.
our heavy breathing
cacophony of passion
synchronized. in. out.
wished on a shooting
star for you to fall in love
with me; not enough.
The poem I started working on during last week’s class is a little reliant on metaphors and analogies, and I’m not sure how much I really like that. It’s also only halfway done, so don’t expect me to share it for a while, if I deem it sharable at all.
On a semi-related note, listening to the song “Red Right Ankle” by the Decemberists the other day prompted me to create a playlist folder by the same name within iTunes.
“This is the story of the boys who loved you, who love you now, and loved you then. And some were sweet and some were cold and snuffed you, and some just laid around in bed. Some had crumbled you straight to your knees, did it cruel, did it tenderly. Some had crawled their way into your heart to rend your ventricles apart. This is the story of the boys who loved you. This is the story of your red right ankle.” -”Red Right Ankle,” the Decemberists.
I just thought it would be cool/useful/neat/interesting to collect songs that reminded me of/I associated with boys who fall into the description presented in the lyrics. Some are friends, some are lovers, most are exes, but all are important and have shaped me in irrevocable ways as they passed though my life. At best, it’ll be a musical collection of the moments we shared, one which I can listen to without bitterness or regret. At worst, it will be an interesting thought experiment that I’ll abandon in favor of more pressing matters, such as the newest episode of Glee.
I’m sort of hoping for the former.
