A few years ago I tried Dry January. While I miss my martinis, not so much as I\u2019d expected, and haven\u2019t gotten \u201cwet\u201d since. This year I thought I might take leave of my social media habit. For me, this meant signing off of Instagram, having left Twitter years ago and Facebook years before that. I\u2019ve always been a social media lurker, and had found myself using Instagram to \u201cfill time\u201d more and more often. With some reluctance, I put down my app much in the same way I put down my cocktail shaker – in a 31-day experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what to fill in the fill-in time with? As a shock to no one here, I read, and listened. And I wrote. Which I hadn\u2019t for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat have been writing?\u201d, you might ask. Or not. But I\u2019ll tell you, anyway: haiku<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Very, very, VERY bad haiku, if I do say so myself. And, OK, not actually<\/em> haiku. Senryu is technically the form, for the most part, largely because the focus of my \u201cpoetry\u201d is not primarily nature. Though nature certainly comes into things, as you\u2019ll see. Because much like Vogon poetry (boy, howdy, could we use Douglas Adams right about now), its impact is amplified when shared. So, read on if you like, and don\u2019t if you don\u2019t!<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Year\u2019s Day, again<\/p>\n\n\n\n Time to start something new, or\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not the boss of you<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dark clown prances<\/p>\n\n\n\n And shouts \u201cAll the world\u2019s my stage!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beware the audience<\/p>\n\n\n\n A gray (grey?) late start<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coffee? Yes. Could have been worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The morning puzzles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The morning dishes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Done. Coffee? Please. Black. Honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now? The laundry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so it begins<\/p>\n\n\n\n The emails, invites, reviews<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new (SE) year<\/p>\n\n\n\n New year’s first commute<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seems some things will never change<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brake lights and red lights<\/p>\n\n\n\n The end of NATO?<\/p>\n\n\n\n To quote one Michael Wilbon,<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Hocus-pocus junk!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sam is coming home<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was it a long week? We’ll see<\/p>\n\n\n\n Expecting laundry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it Friday yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone always asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. Now please shut up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rainy Saturday<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we walk, and talk, decide<\/p>\n\n\n\n World’s problems all solved<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shadows zebra stripe<\/p>\n\n\n\n A well-known, travelled roadway<\/p>\n\n\n\n To our doom, or brunch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The low hum of trucks<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crack through the windows and doors<\/p>\n\n\n\n Early signs of Spring?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s go for a walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n She says, sipping her coffee<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can we go at noon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t understand<\/p>\n\n\n\n I find myself repeating<\/p>\n\n\n\n Must. Stop. Reading. News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coffee with Stephen<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best start to any day<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good friend and chin wag<\/p>\n\n\n\n Performance Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n The season I love and loathe<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admin beats success<\/p>\n\n\n\n Snow and rain and sun<\/p>\n\n\n\n The day’s a wintery mix<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I’m wearing shorts<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eggs, bacon, toast, coffee<\/p>\n\n\n\n Futsal, basketball, swimming<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seven-year old’s day<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her birthday starts clear<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I’m away, watching<\/p>\n\n\n\n And waiting, hoping<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start: Eighteen degrees<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t care if you think other<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eighteen degrees: COLD<\/p>\n\n\n\n Morning commute: done<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hot chocolate day! Coffee!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And a new boss starts<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winter whites today<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have me smiling even more<\/p>\n\n\n\n Than I’ve a right to<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, that was a late<\/p>\n\n\n\n Night spent with mother and child<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hospitals, you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, the best part?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Discovering it’s only<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saturday winning<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunday snow and sleet<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best part of all this is<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neighbor’s snowblower<\/p>\n\n\n\n A frigid Monday<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coffee and English muffins<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make it all better<\/p>\n\n\n\n Snow and ice layers<\/p>\n\n\n\n An unfun non-birthday cake<\/p>\n\n\n\n Driveway enemy<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winter slumbering<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearly now over, and sales<\/p>\n\n\n\n Awake, hustling<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so it begins<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harassing, haranguing<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arbitrariness<\/p>\n\n\n\n The annual review<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prep, the demos, the calls<\/p>\n\n\n\n A day in the life<\/p>\n\n\n\n Birdsong I can’t hear<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scraping shovel that I can<\/p>\n\n\n\n Day’s motivations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few years ago I tried Dry January. While I miss my martinis, not so much as I\u2019d expected, and haven\u2019t gotten \u201cwet\u201d since. This year I thought I might take leave of my social media habit. For me, this… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bqFE-68","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jan 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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