To my gratified surprise, a haiku I put in on the previous topic of ‘Lightning’ earned me the distinction of hosting the latest round.
Writing is a form of lunacy. Writing poetry even more so. Doing that in such succinct forms as a haiku is utter madness. So there you have the topic.
MADNESS
The rules are simple. Up to a maximum of three haikus (one is fine), each of which will have three lines with a strict syllable count of 5-7-5 (first line 5, second 7, and final line 5 again).
That is all there is to it, but for extra merit you can throw in a reference which will place the time or season, and/or put in a turning point or punchline effect using any punctuation you choose. Post the haiku as a comment here, and if you like also do a post of it on your own blog with or without a visual. Judging will be done on 9th.
Here are three Really Awful examples I have thrown together. Trying to make some of them rhyme is an extra bit of madness on my part – you can ignore that.
Within the mad mind
Shoots of fantasy will sprout –
Unseasonably!
Madness is a state
Minds sound, with religion found,
Blossom to create.
Isn’t it insane,
When March strain May cause you pain,
Doing it again?
© Colonialist December 2013 (WordPress)
Colonialist's Blog 
Pingback: Haiku Monday ~ A Twist of Fate | Spirit Lights The Way
If you let it.
bloodlust from true war
it eats the enemy, then
it consumes the owner
Hazing rituals of the human family.
mom, dad, say “Do this.”
they don’t, always – rules one way
teaching to own self?
I have others up, but I’m not going to keep dumping them here. More than enough as is. Still, you asked.
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Here’s my last minute entry:
Teeth bursting with blood/
Head a tumbleweed dyed black/
Tears eat up my face/
5-7-5
Thanks for the encouragement to enter. Looking forward the results! 😀
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Thanks for the entry! Great images …
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Rational am I,
but rare such thinking today,
that mad appear I.
~~~o~~~o~~~
Not crazy, I be,
to such contest host. Haiku
here not from me be.
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Madly protesting your sanity! 🙂
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Pingback: A SHORT BOUT OF INSANITY | Colonialist's Blog
I love a contest when I can’t count all the better competition. You have just such a thing. Why the love? Means I don’t have to judge next week! 🙂
Or, uhrm, whenever his lordship gets around to it. *cough* Then again, you didn’t stay married for that long without paying your dues, and then needing some recovery time. *cough* ~cheeky
Looks like some ripe noobs, ready to be groomed to me, too. Gosh, I hated hazing on the receiving side, so never did it when it was my turn. Then again, my size mitigated much of what others went through. Still, I had sympathy or something. So… I enjoy it as I can as an adult! 🙂
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Moan day is planned for! It is, I can see, going to be a task of the greatest hardship giving loads of mental anguish and indigestion … er, I mean, indecision.
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Pingback: Haiku Revue ~ Madness | Spirit Lights The Way
What a super bunch of entries, Col. I love your first haiku!
Only in my mind
Thoughts that scramble back and forth
I alone can sort
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Pity mine don’t count! 🙂
A good concept, here!
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Just Shoot Me?
she says I’m crazy
then she hates me and loves me
all in the same breath?
Sas fiddles with me
Sam then musts fiddle with Sas
two cats fiddling
(I consider fiddling 3 sylables, if spoken correctly… or… incorrectly :p )
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Great, even if the second one is a bit of a fiddle! 🙂
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I changed it to “three cats fiddling” when transplanting it to my blog. I realized… I’m a cat too! 😛 Glad you enjoy.
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Something from your side of the pond. A fascinating critter
Raucous giggling calls.
Lurks in the night; *scavenger*.
Maligned. Crazy? False.
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*mad laughter*
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Good evening Colonialist,
Sir, your turnout is most impressive. I submit two for your entertainment.
Every year they test
Sometimes five hundred questions
Yep cleared again
Outcome so unclear
Why this before doing that
Method to madness
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Thanks for entry!
Syllable count first one last line?
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Entranced by the words..
I read, time is forgotten =
Oh, so tired at work .. 🙂
Stuck in the morass..
Sluggish mind wakens from dream.
What madness was that?
foam
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I do like those. One could play fill in the blank, a bit, or just see what your gig is. I see you made it!
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Thanks, Doom! Yes, they finally came.
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Imaginative creations!
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Great theme.. I’ll. be back!
Foam
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And so you were! Good.
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Hi Col,
Sounds like you had a great party. You already have some great entries! Interesting crowd you hang out with.
I offer a couple for now. The first refers to our craziness in traipsing off to the forest, sometimes in subzero weather or blizzards, hauling hundreds of pounds of meat on our backs and calling it fun, , just to fill the freezer. Mom just shakes her head and mutters “Those two are crazy!” The second is a description of what happens to a certain redhead when the fall wind whips up.
Family thinks we’re mad.
Each fall we suffer extremes,
just to get our meat!
Blustery winter winds
stir the beast within. Green-eyed
spirit dances wild.
I may or may not get a photo up…
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You do find some strange amusements! I am inclined to agree with the family … 🙂
Great haiku material, though!
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My name is Madeleine,
but all my friends call me “Mad”
and seem to mean it.
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I like the twist!
Is it said, ‘Mad-leine’ – or can you lose a syllable from the first line?
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Thanks! I tend to pronounce it as a two syllable word. (I almost replaced the first e with an apostrophe to force it into two syllables. 🙂
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I’m loving this theme, Colonialist! Here’s a couple bits of silliness right off my top:
Alone, I wander
Jibber Jabber; Jubilee
Hatter, seems quite sane
Cock-eyed, without sense
Spinning roosters round the bend
Pavlov howls, “Arhoooooooo”
I’ll see about a post later in the week:D
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Crazy, man! These are great!
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I was just about to send him a comment. Didn’t want him to miss this theme. Something about the lad…
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Oops? I hope I didn’t miss the contest. Not sure when you went up. Usually I’m a first responder. Yeah, I’m from the League of Extraordinarily Odd Gentlemen. Never the whit, I’ll toss a couple in. Urhm, when did you put it up? What day is it? Oh, whatever, I’ll figure things out shortly. I’m up. But… remember… view at your discretion, I don’t play fair.
living in the sky
no body no senses non
I love you all – man
the cats and cradle
rocked me to sleep – winter
I can’t remember
fall inside a thought
that time gone – it’s all you know
can never go home
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Thanks! *said darkly* I survived the viewing!
The ‘rocked me’ line – 6 syllables?
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Hmm… I count the ‘ed’ in rocked as a second syllable? My grammar is shaky, old, somewhat rheummy, with a hack, you know. She is, not me. No siree… :p I blather. And goof. If that is wrong I can fix that with a patch… well, the haiku. And I wanted to change another one, anyway. I create these right as I land on the post, so… sometimes errors occur. And… it wasn’t meant to be all that bad. That was just a sales gimmick. Mostly.
the cats and cradle
they rocked me to sleep – winter
I can’t remember
fall inside a thought
that time’s gone – it’s all you know
can never go home
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Good mind-twisters.
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Yours are great, I’m no good at this sort of thing 🙂
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That’s what you said about captions … and then what happened? 🙂
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I already posted my haiku on my other (poetry) blog, but sadly I didn’t use madness as my topic…wish I’d read my blog subscriptions first!
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Plenty of time for an encore! 🙂
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Hamlet’s claim to fame
The precipice of madness
To live or let die
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I do like the 2B allusion!
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Ego stands its ground
Insisting “I’m right!” with might
Blinders block its view
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An ego ’tis tickle piece!
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Stuff Stuff and more Stuff
Possessions overwhelm us
Enough is enough
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A very prevalent form of madness!
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Haikus seem to be all the rage at the moment or at least I get that impression from some of the blogs I follow. Look forward to reading more of yours madness creations.
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People are coming up with some fascinating ones indeed!
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Nanowrimo done,
plenty of words written down.
keyboard burnt out now.
my little one, not quite on the ladder,so plenty of chances to move up and get better… 😉 ps i liked your last one best…
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A good narrative one about your narrative!
I must admit I liked the triple-meaning I got from that last one!
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I admire those that can… I’m one who can’t…
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Betcha could if you tried!
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I admire all of you who write Haiku. The fun, the serious, the silly, the madness of it all!
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It is fun to try, even if – as with me – they all end up pretty silly!
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Definitely madness – but I enjoyed reading what you created.
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Utterly loopy-de-loop – but as long as it’s fun!
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It is. And I enjoyed reading what others wrote as well 🙂
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Let me give this a try:-
I see a haiku
alas I do not know why
maybe I should cry.
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Right: irrational moodswings are a good indicator of madness – or is it really that irrational? 🙂
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Here are mine – the first being the result of breaking my back recently and the second goes way back in my history!
Morphia for pain
is good but it sends you mad.
Why use it for fun?
Smokers and drinkers –
Addiction a form of madness
Please try to stop.
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Super – thanks for the entries. The first is a bitter lesson learnt.
For this contest, the 5-7-5 count is strictly applied, so the second one might need some tinkering, being a 5-8-4.
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How about: To smokers and drinkers
addiction is like madness.
Please try to stop.
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That is now a 6-7-4! The total stays right, but first and last lines have had to compensate for one another.
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I can’t count!
Smokers’ and drinkers’
addictions are like madness:
masochism gone mad.
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Yay! Spot on!
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