With some free time on my hands (having mislaid my copy of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu and nothing good on Oprah) I decided to write some haiku poems about Ollie the Pug.
Do you know haiku? It's an ancient Japanese poetry form. Here's a 17th-century example by the venerable Basho Matsuo:
An old silent pond ...
A frog jumps into the pond
splash! Silence again.
Cool, eh? Haiku's all about capturing a poignant moment in a few deft lines. Here's one of mine.
Ollie wants food now
He watches me eat sausage!
A frog does the backstroke
You see? I figure in haiku, you've go to work in a frog somehow like that other guy did. The only problem is, haiku is supposed to be five syllables, seven and then five again. So I'm one syllable over in the last line.
Here's another:
Ollie sheds badly
Time to go nuts with lint brush!
Just say no to drugs
This one works perfectly. All the syllables are in place. Admittedly there's no mention of a frog. However, it ends with a positive social message.
How about:
Ollie eats stink bone
Made of rawhide ... what a reek!
Make my martini a double
That one got totally goofed up syllable-wise. Five, seven, eight. Sorry. And once again, no frog mention. Just started thinking about martinis, I guess. You know ... when you get a single martini at a bar and it seems too small and you wish it was a double? That's where I was coming from.
And finally:
A large martini
Is so very beautiful
Ollie bites my face
That one was inspired by me making a large martini, then Ollie jumps up and bites me in the face! For no reason. Just sitting on the couch with my martini (two jalapeno-stuffed olives) and my pug dog nips my cheek. A curiously poignant moment, juxtaposing one of life's small pleasures with the threat of violence always present in our fast-paced society.
Do you have a haiku inspired by your pug or other breed of dog? Or cat? Or other kind of pet? Or perhaps your parakeet is your muse. Sent it to yours truly at the e-mail address at the end before Oct. 10. The winning entry will be published in the Adventures With Ollie blog. As well, you will receive a genuine Ollie the Pug shirt, size large.
achamberlain@tc,canwest.com
On the web: Read the Adventures With Ollie blog at timescolonist.com/tcblogs
