| September 6, 2003 Last month I directed you to Darwinian Poetry, and I’ve previously preached in this space that poetry has a place in project management philosophy. This month, my poetry-where-you-weren’t-looking tip is the funny and insightful Honku, a book and a website by Aaron Naparstek. Honku bills itself as “the Zen antidote to road rage”, and it certainly does a great job turning those dashboard-banging moments into shareable, largely non-violent events. Aaron offers a definition of honku on the site that begins “A ‘honku’ is a haiku poem about cars and traffic”. But are they true haiku? Not really; haiku is meditative and presents things unencumbered by the author’s opinion, and these surely don’t do that. Some of the short poems presented are just brilliant, and most are LOL funny, but if they’re of a poetic form, it’s a new one, not that of Bassho. Does that matter? Again, not really. Honku will probably have a impact on poetry in several ways: it will entertain people who haven’t read a haiku since 11th grade English, it will inspire some people who don’t compose linguistic art to sketch out some humorous syllables, and it will yank the chains of haiku purists. These are effects all good for poetry. How? Well, in order: (1) People who haven’t thought of poetry in years are thinking of poetry, (2) people who haven’t written poetry in years are writing poetry, and (3) people who think poetry is something static and well-defined are discovering that is alive, growing, managing to exist outside their influence, and finding new and unexpected places to take root. Whatever your opinion of honku, how could any of these things be bad? I freely and proudly admit: you’ll find some of my work on Honku.org – you’ll have to go there to read it. While you’re there, read some more off the Lamppost and don’t be surprised if you find yourself reaching for a pen before you leave. the human house keeps rage and art pinned behind windows shaped like pens See? You just can’t help it. And that’s good. For poetry, and for you. David Vincenti Advisor, Center for the Performing Arts at DeBaun Auditorium www.debaun.org; www.davidvincenti.com
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