Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for June 04, 2023

Reminder that Bill Watterson is the first cartoonist to ever use “booger” in a comic strip. (Or so he hopes someone confirms.)

“Sigh. He has such a way with words.”- Sandy Cheeks.

Marvelous work, Todd. A round of applause to you. It deserves an “A.”

https://www.gocomics.com/ozy-and-millie/2022/09/13

Easily composed/Just count your syllables and/Arrange them like so.

I thought Phoebe spoke fluent dragon after having been one temporarily.

Does it really matter why Tod wins?

Todd has a way with words.

Marigold is good — But Todd is better — He’s the winner, unfettered

Late night Go Comics

A run of haikus gets me

Haikus do hit hard

Rar! Short and to the point!

Does Todd really?

Does rar invoke an aspect

of nature’s beauty?

Haiku are poems

That often don’t make much sense

Refrigerator

Leave It To Beaver

And you’ll be sorry you did

Boy’s dumb as a stump

—TV Land Haiku

I’d count the syllables to see if the first 2 haikus followed the rules, but counting is a form of math, so, no.

It can be quite hard

To express a full thought in

Seventeen syllab

One of the goblins should’ve entered.

Blart blart blart blart blartBlart blart blart blart blart blart blartBlart blart blart blart blart

I bet that haiku would’ve beaten Todd’s. I don’t know for sure, since I don’t speak Goblin.

I’m just glad to see/

That Todd has gotten past his/

Rebellious phase/

Great job, Tod! I never knew I could be so moved by Haiku.

Haiku by Blartholemew

Blart blart blaaaaart blart blart/Blãrt BLart blartblart blart blårt BLART/blartblartblart blart blært

I suppose haiku come across as verse in Japanese (and maybe in French?); they don’t at all (for me) in English.

As nsr60 says above, “Just count your syllables and arrange them” typographically; but that’s a puzzle or game, not a poem, to my ears. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; puzzles and games are good.

But to me it takes rhythm, not just a count of syllables, to make a poem that’s metrical. And if you’re writing free verse, you don’t need to count syllables.

Actually it reminds me of an old Oxhorn short short – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49HZnbnfXc

Todd’s language does seem extremely suited to haikus.

I don’t like haikus.

They’re too short to be much fun.

And they never rhyme.

Haikus can be tough

but they’re fun when they work out.

Don’t give up, Phoebe.

(I miss the old “Haiku Ewe” strip that used to be on GoComics.)

Todd may have gotten the syllable count right. But he didn’t use any nature imagery, so it’s not a true haiku.

Blart blart Blärt BLAART.

Why does Todd win? ‘Cuz….’Cuz…’cuz WE ALL LOVE TODD!

What, no goblin haiku?

Blart blart blart blart blart

Blart blart blart blart blart blart blart

Blart blart blart blart blart

I wonder what LSH would have said?

There once was a man

From Nantucket, and he was

Confused by Haikus.

English hates haiku.Syllables, like April snowMelt and flow away.