The Interact! column appears twice a month, and is a place for jugglers to get creative and share with the community. This column features contests and collaborations of all kinds – photo contests and juggling challenges, prop reviews and essay competitions. Three winners will be selected each time, with a fantastic prizes from the IJA Store awarded, just to keep it interesting.
This week’s challenge is:
Write a juggling haiku.
Good luck, friends. Godspeed.
Post your haiku as a comment below. Only entries that follow the traditional 5-7-5 syllable pattern will be accepted. Multiple entries per person will be accepted (and encouraged!) Poems will be evaluated by Thom Wall and Scott Seltzer, who are both tremendously fond of puns and subtle cleverness. Entries accepted until the end of the day Saturday, February 18, 2012. Winners will be announced on February 22nd, 2012.
Have an idea for a future challenge? Send an email to Thom Wall – wall@juggle.org.
[Double line breaks don’t display properly in the comments so if you want to submit multiple entries, put a few hyphens in the line between them.]Thom Wall
Thom is a professional variety performer, currently touring Europe with Cirque du Soleil's "TOTEM."Thom holds a BA in Germanic Languages and Literatures from Washington University in St Louis and an MS in Nonprofit Arts Administration from Drexel University's Westphal College of Media Arts and Design.When he's not performing, he coaches juggling online and writes about his travels at www.thomwall.com/blog .
Comments 46
Five seven five is
Good for writing a haiku.
Valid siteswap? NO!
Lunge, dive and catch it,
Just before it hits the ground.
Ooh! Everyone gasps.
There once was a man
From Nantucket who juggled
Balls in a bucket.
[No, I’m not eligible to win the prize (even though I’m definitely deserving), but I’m going to have fun submitting!]
Ten Eleven Twelve
Barron works all day and night
‘Til thirteen is flashed
Japan’s countryside
I start a juggling club
One student joins: joy!
I hate gravity
But juggling bar gravity
Not juggling at all
The passing juggler
Just happened to catch a break,
While dropping a name.
Hup, Pup! Drop on Pop.
One fish, two fish, float in air.
Scrambled eggs and ham.
Juggling outside
Suddenly, a gust of wind
“Goodbye rings” I cry
Practice all year long
Gold this time at IJA!?
Nevermind…Jugheads…
From the ‘Contact Juggling Haiku’ thread on http://www.contactjuggling.org (some of my favorite, reposted)
Rotate and glimmer . . .
Four balls in a pyramid
Float above my hand.
-Frawg
————–
A Contact Juggler:
One who plays with their balls and
Others stop to watch.
—
Hands above my head
No control; drop on my face…
Ouch! darn bridge roll…
-Riel Green
————–
Sil-X is sloshy
But I can maneuver it
Down with the Stage ball
– Rabit
————–
Dear acrylic ball,
Why are you attracted so
To breakable items?
-Oct
Four balls in the air
For forty-one seconds
I dropped one again
Shattered clubs, rubble
Strewn at Jason Garfield’s feet
A tear on his cheek
Always explaining:
I’m not a clown. And screw you,
“Light them on fire!” guy.
thomas dietz hits de
b97531
juggling nerds rejoice
————–
gatto’s gotta get
a ghetto gatto tattoo
go go gatto go
Juggling day and night
in an underground bunker.
What apocalypse?
White clubs; please, no more.
Bodies rolling on the floor.
French jongleurs: “Encore!”
juggling seven balls
drop drop drop drop drop drop catch
could have been worse
Squirrels look upwards;
Why is it raining beanbags?
At least they are soft.
Kid doing 2 ball shower
look at me! I can do it too
i’m not sure what a haiku is
WJF
the smallest 5 syllables
do i win for that?
Sitting in the sun
In a big buttercup field
But no-one juggles
I’m sorry ’bout that
black eye, awkward juggler boy
My eyes are up ::here::
Oh racquetball court,
Leave the racquet, keep the balls
My time is not up!
“One last time” she said
“Yes… NO! That one does not count!”
“One last time” I said
damn you university
watching juggling vids all day
better start learning
——————————
a devilstick haiku
tic tac tic tac propeller
spinning every day
“One More!” He screw from
the end of the jugglers crowd.
Then he got One Hour!
just broke a thumb-nail
catching these new PX3’s,
blind behind the back.
—-
seven ball cascade
every young norwegian kid
is better than me
—-
body throws are cool
dancing is the new big thing
i have no rhythm
—-
Little Paul and Co.
faceless voices on the web
offering advice
—-
peden to sweden
is only five syllables
so is PeaPot Press
—-
remember way back
way before before all this youtube?
the web’s dark ages
—-
stage balls seem lonely
MMX, Russians, Sil-X
Out with the old? No!
—-
Perfect and plenty
gone about your merry way
never looking back
—-
Dube is my choice
for good clubs still made of wood
and a sweet show room
—-
germans do it best
unique catches and great tricks
guys like Stefan Sing
—-
Francis Brunn is dead
Enrico Rastelli, too
they are my heroes
—-
spent all my money
on a set of seven balls
that i didn’t need.
-alex, nopoetsplease
Drunk at 4 A.M.
Playing combat in a church.
I love Turbofest!
____
Pass, pass, self, pass, self.
J1 crosses, J2 straight.
Jim’s bookends. Enjoy.
Can you write Haiku?
Not everyone can do it.
But nopoetsplease?!
🙂 nopoetsplease is my rec.juggling alias. thought i’d throw it in at the end for a bit of ironic context.
on Boppo’s Whiteboard,
you provide excellent help.
thanks for everything!
-a
a very cool night
the sound of one hand jug’ling
another one smiles
Nopoetsplease writes
more haiku than anyone
He may be misnamed!
—
Five clubs in doubles,
Parallel spins look so neat
Muggles can’t see it.
—
Juggling on the moon
everything moves so slowly
more height doesn’t help
—
Landings will permute
if throw heights aren’t all the same.
It looks confusing.
—
Seven balls or nine?
Nine is higher and faster.
(But takes many years.)
—
Thank god for YouTube.
Now everyone can show off
instants of great luck.
The line breaks were there,
but now are invisible.
I look like a fool.
Fixed, but second post
doesn’t make sense anymore.
So you’re still a fool.
brilliant!
i won’t Submit one,
Because all of these are so good.
Jugglers are fun.
—
Fitting in is hard
Jugglers are my people
We are all crazy
—
Haiku look easy
Until you try to do one
They are like siteswaps
—
IJA EZine
Rendering assistance to
Fellow jugglers
—
Throwing and catching
Dropping is much easier
Stick to what i know
—
“Do you do chainsaws?”
“Do you cut down trees with clubs?
Never ask again.”
Catch catch catch catch catch
catch catch catch catch catch catch catch.
(Half of a twelve flash.)
—
Nineteen syllables
is barely enough to say
what needs to be said.
—
Adding two dashes
between each pair of haiku
makes me look less daft.
—
Off-topic haiku
can not enter this contest;
Put in some juggling.
—
Doing backcrosses,
clubs seem to fall from above.
Will the sky run out?
Novelty torrent,
How shall I capture your flow?
Create new language!
What do you call it?
Ken’s Crazy Crashinator!
So nondescriptive…
Non-juggle muggle
How silly to fear mistakes
No failure – FEEDBACK!
–
Hey intensity,
I channel your energy
Zing! Zang~! Zap~!! Ka-POW~!!!
Siteswap height ratios:
Square[1] quotient: (throw less[2] twice[3] dwell)
More than expected!
—
[2]Dwell lessens air time;
[1]gravity accelerates;
[3]Twice comes from two hands.
—
Haikus for footnotes?
Do not mention the numbers.
Just know they are there.
Rec.juggling:
Is it declining or not?
Many threads discuss.
5 clubs with no drops
7 balls up and time stops
syllables, my props
–
Parabolic arcs
Define my state of being
What? Yes, It’s Juggling
–
Here we are again
The Poetic Motion Machine
Group mind at the helm
–
A siteswap haiku?
No, the sum’s a prime number
Sorry juggle dorks
–
A trick, look quickly
at the possibility
of infinity