Recession Haiku from NPR

Even if you lose your car, your house or your girl, you still have rock 'n' roll (to paraphrase the 13-year-olds in the band Whiplash who, by the way, are one of the featured bands in the latest Wonder Twins show review in the Metro Times). You've also got poetry or, more specifically, the haiku.

NPR, totally gay for poetry lately, has a story on their Planet Money blog about University of Michigan (holla!) economics professor Stephen Ziliak who says "an economics without poetry is an economics that is blind."

From the blog: "Ziliak is a big fan of haiku because it's an efficient form where economy of words is valued. He assigns haiku challenges for bonus points on exams and holds haiku workshops as part of a course on rhetoric in economics."

Awesome!

There's also a Chronicle of Higher Education interview with Ziliak done entirely in haiku. But you can't read it unless you're a CoHE subscriber.

But don't be sad, because NPR has given you an assignment: Write a recession haiku! And as NPR reminds us, a haiku is "17 syllables, in three lines, with a pattern of five syllables, seven syllables, and five more."

So write 'em up and put them in the comments section on Planet Money. Because poetry makes everybody richer (in a completely metaphorical way, of course).

Here are mine:

A good time to buy
that minivan you don't want
but need for the kids

Your mother in law
is coming to live with you.
Hey, good luck with that.

Put off surgery.
It's not that noticeable
if you wear a hat.

Dental insurance
is for losers anyway.
Just keep your mouth closed.

Sell it on E-bay
and by it I mean your house.
You might get ten grand.



From my wife:

Tulips rise again
but Anne won't see them this year.
New renters mow them.

Congratulations
graduates. No job waiting?
Get a PhD.