Heroic Haiku's

okay so heroic has nothing to do with my post about haiku's, but i was going for a little alliteration and i think it did the part. for those of you unaquainted with this jittery joust of japanese jibberish...... wow, i really got carried away with alliteration there. let me start over: for those of you who are unaquainted with this japanese form of poetry (much better), allow me to introduce you and you can thank me later. haiku's are written in a 5-7-5 syllable format. for instance, my name (garlan) is two syllables. come on people, this isnt that hard to understand, just sound it out - GAR (one syllable) LAN (another syllable) bringing the total to two. (unintended alliteration there, i promise). so the first line would be a total of five syallables, followed by a line of seven, and then rounding out the three sentence poem with another five syllable line.

i bring this up b/c the other night we had the privilege of entertaining a few girls from our ward at our house. (a monumental occasion for us socially inept students of the female species). anyways, so somehow i end up in a haiku-off. yes, i just made that up and if its not a word then it should be. it started out simple enough- getting the form down, looking like an idiot b/c your counting syllables on your hand to make sure you get it right (that part never goes away tho), and trying to write something better than a third grader. over the course of a few impromptu ones, we decided on head-to-head competition. we would come up with a couple words that we had to use in both of ours, and then had the others judge whose was better. at the behest of the females, mine were unanimously chosen.... every time, with no exception, not deviating away, nor never-failing therefrom. i mean i was on a roll. "like hot butter on breakfast toast!" (thats a reference to a song and if anyone can guess what its from then i'll pay you in the form of personalized haiku's, many of them).

getting on with the story. by the end of the night, i'd gone from not having the slightest clue as to what that word was, to being a prodigy of the poetry. (alliteration intended). the girls were dooley (shout out to you terrence and kestlee!) impressed. they left our house that night muttering something under their breath to the effect of: "man, why did we introduce him to that? he smoked us! never in my life have i seen such ease with which he dominated the english language in forming words into sentences into haiku's that were before thought to be impossible. i cant believe he has such mastery over resounding rhymes, awesome alliteration, and sultry syllables! i know i'm crying, but i cant help it. i'm in awe of this genius and his ability to capture my imagination. the only expression my mediocre mind has capability of grasping is letting loose this salty secretion out of my flabergasted face." or it was something close to that, i couldnt quite tell since it was under their breath and their back was to me. but allow me to share what it was that brought these wonderful women to their knees begging for more:

A silent slumber
N'er the sleeping soul awakes
For death knocks each door.

i'll allow a minute for you to catch your breath........
need another? okay......
here's a tissue and a chair too.......

okay so perhaps this is all a bit exaggerated, but i just got going and couldnt resist. now for a challenge. for each of you who choose to read this post and comment, i want you to improvise one of your own and share it with me and others. dont be ashamed, for all cannot stand atop the mountain peak. but humor me if nothing else. happy haiku'ing! (one for the road there :)