Friday fun: Write a ‘baiku’
Posted on June 20th, 2008 – 12:08 PMBy Roadguy
Minneapolis just can’t have enough bike celebrations. There was the bike center grand opening, the opening of the Sabo bike bridge, the naming ceremony for the Sabo bike bridge, and now, this Sunday, Global Bike Day, which includes a ribbon-cutting for a new access ramp to the Midtown Greenway. (Click here for info on the day’s events.)
Sunday’s activities include a bicycle haiku — or baiku — contest. (Organizers describe baiku as “an ancient Japanese poetry form about bicycles.”) According to an e-mail I received, entrants must write their baikus on a slip of paper and drop them into a box at the event by 4 p.m. Sunday, and the winner gets a bicycle.
Roadguy does not have a bicycle to give away, but if your brain has been itching to write a 5-7-5 poem about bicycling, please do offer it below. (Keep in mind that Roadguy cannot be held responsible if someone steals your baiku off the web and enters it in the actual contest. He would never condone such behavior, even though he himself could use a new bike.)
Here’s a baiku to start:
My resolution
To bike to work at least once
Remains unfulfilled
32 Responses to "Friday fun: Write a ‘baiku’"
Still waiting to see
DGB and Prof S. ride
bicycles to work!
Bike bike bike bike bike
Bicycle bicycle bike
bike bike bike bike FLY!
Funny thing is, the Japanese word for “bicycle” is jii-ten-sha. The word for “motorcycle,” is, oddly enough, “baiku.”
Car, there on my left
Turns suddenly, we swiftly meet and smash
Hospital bed, soft and comfy!
PS - I am not the Art in the second post, but the Art who has been here all along.
Gaffe on way to work
Being late went through red light.
Yelled at by driver
Two wheels and no gas,
Off to get pizza and ale.
Only two wheels now.
To BarryS:
Walking to my work
Can still be done in a suit
Leave my bike at home
To bike nuts:
Critical Mass Loves
Illegally clogging
They above the law?
To the woman who yelled at me when I drove around her as she slowly turned from the automobile left turn lane into the left lane of the highway:
Cars don’t drive so slow
I went around you instead
Rather I tailgate?
In the world of Prof
Car only turn lanes exist
Bikes turn from turn lanes
SUV man yelled
“Get off the road!” I smiled,
“How’s your gas milage?”
To Matty:
Gave the bike its room
Passed it like I’d pass a car
Bikes don’t own the roads
Kind of cracks me up
to see people arguing
in five seven five
Get out of the way
He is much more important
than you, he’s Prof S!
If you drive “too slow”
he’ll take matters into his
own hands, he’s Prof S!
Says time is money,
But can’t quote the exchange rate,
Too bad. He’s Prof S!
If he were not here,
who would we complain about?
George Bush? No! Prof S!
Thinks bikes slow traffic,
Hates you all for getting in
his way, he’s Prof S!
Doesn’t share the road,
Gives lip service to transit,
Our Hero, Prof S!
And here’s a baiku of how I spent the last two hours.
Big Brain Comics, lunch,
Target, and home on my bike.
T’was a great day off!
Oh and for anyone who will be biking in the next two hours…
Thunderstorms are here,
or Prof S on the road, which
one’s more dangerous?
Never had accident
Avoided more than my share
Who’s the danger here?
Barry, I’d try to respond in Baiku, but that’s too good. I found myself cheering along. Here’s a run for it…
Exchange rate for time
Is the value I give it
When making choices
If one does prefer
time to the increased cost
Time more than money
But if one takes more
time to save their own money
Money more than time
When two are balanced
Exchange rate calculated
It differs for each
Simple econ should
Be minimum class for all
Basic concepts lost
And let’s continue….
Never ran off road
Person driving much too slow
‘though they cost me time
I shared the road with
Bike who was blocking traffic
Her act illegal
Take transit daily
Except when I carpool in
Facts not important?
You can name Geroge Bush
Your politics are clear
I’m reg’d DFL
You must not know me
I’m a fun guy in real life
Why you so angry?
Barry, Barry-S,
Which is which–let’s take a guess,
We are fun, I confess.
Drives us all batty.
Blog rage, road rage, and name rage…
Can’t change to ‘Matty.’
We pick names we like.
If gas hits five-a-gallon,
Then we all will bike.
Hummer-head on the phone
Tries to pass, runs out of gas,
He’s probably calling home.
Latte in one hand,
Newspaper in the other,
Driver’s not driving.
Bikes, cars, right or wrong,
Gas prices big as King Kong,
Let’s all get along.
Left-wing or right-wing
Politics are no big thing,
Biking saves bling-bling!
Ride a bike or bus,
Saving freeway space for us.
This avoids a fuss.
The Sabo bridge.
A commie in disguise.
Hippies live eternal in Seward.
Hippies, GOP’s,
We’re all in this together.
Nice biking weather.
The bovine standing
All watch the bikers passing
Say hi to the cows
“Green” alternative
phony traffic solution
Latest hipster fad
Ain’t fad or funny,
Bikes save me a lot of “green.”
Color of money.
Saving the planet
Or saving yourself a buck
Time is money, Jetson!
People who are self important
Think they can “save the planet”
Navel gazers.
I can’t save the earth.
Ride my bike for what it’s worth.
…And to cut my girth.
Bike over the car
Matter of personal choice
I make mine; you yours.
I may save other ways
If I don’t bike it’s because
Not worth it to me.
I walked myself in
To the office today since
Time not a factor
Monday through Friday
Not the same calculation
That’s why I carpool
Principles apply
When deciding how to drive
Why I may drive fast
Marginal savings
from the better gas mileage
Not worth it to me.
Wow, this post has unleashed the creativity of the reading public.
Want to ride my bike
Haven’t yet been able to
Stupid tire is flat
Coelancanth:
Someone once stole mine
Replacement cost more than bike
Bought new bike instead
Wow… I think we need a general rule from now on, that if you want to say something negative about a story topic or another blogger, you have to do it in Haiku form… the negative energy of it is really obliterated by the poems!
Bike chained to safe stall
on university mall
trucked to Chicago
Work clothes in June
Better ride slow. I am not
the stinky hippy
GOP want no regulate
China have no regulate
They both contaminate
