Haiku (& GG Allin)

Haiku is technically pronounced "hike," at least according to one of the luminaries present at today's Northeast Metro Spring Regional Meeting of the Haiku Society of America. I know what you're thinking: "Uh oh, first herbal tea, now this?"

Guilty as charged, I guess. It was a really interesting event, though, featuring some of the more well-known talents currently writing haiku in the U.S. A friendly bunch, too! I got all kinds of suggestions and potential interviews for the critical component of my MFA thesis project, which will focus on the virtues of short-form poetry.

And in a completely weird twist of fate, one of those present was a guy I knew back in the '70s at NYU (when I was first - unsuccessfully - in an institution of higher learning; shoulda just gone to an institution). This gentleman, with whom I had no contact in the intervening years, penned the life-changing liner notes to GG Allin's posthumously released (and best) album Brutality and Bloodshed For All.

Yes, I know it sounds completely insane to put "GG Allin" and "life-changing" in the same sentence, but if ever there was an individual who lived by the maxim "To thine own self be true," it was GG Allin. I'm not sure I have the words to describe how or why I found those liner notes (or Allin's recorded legacy) to be so profound. But, suffice it to say Hunter S. Thompson taught me how to be a cynic; GG Allin taught me how to be alive.

That was in another life.