rarely have there been
causes more deserving of
our celebration

*
I spotted a refreshing piece of news coverage this past week, when it became known that Sister Mary Scullion was named to Time’s 100 Most Influential list. For those not in the know, Sister Mary is a Philadelphia nun who co-founded Project H.O.M.E., a cause I’ve personally supported for the past few years. Earlier this year, I decided to donate whatever 2009 profits my book yields to this worthy cause.

Sister Mary and the Project H.O.M.E. community have made much more than a dent in the scourge of homelessness in the City of Brotherly Love, and all I really want to say is that it’s good to see an influential persons list that includes those who don’t spend their lives as celebrities or self-serving power brokers. I can think of few people I would be happier to see on the Time list than Sister Mary Scullion.

**
I spent this past Saturday morning and early afternoon celebrating the first communion of the firstborn daughter of one of my dearest old friends. People who know me know I adore children — not just my incredible collection of nieces and nephews (one of whom celebrated her own first communion the Saturday prior) — perhaps because I retain such a connection to my own childhood. It was nice to see their family celebrate such a fine moment, and especially nice to have been included in it.

***
Earlier today I stopped in a the Yum Yum Bake Shop on the corner. I was trying to choose an appropriate combination of donuts from those available. The girl behind the counter remarked, somewhat apologetically, that the selection was “sparse.” It occurred to me how rarely words like “sparse” are used, especially by younger folks (the young woman behind the counter appeared to be in her late teens, possibly early twenties).

I complimented her choice of words, at which point she commented that she is sometimes “verbose.” I responded she must be a writer. She said she was.

I guess we’re everywhere.

(Sorry, by the way, for not handwriting the haiku — it was an afterthought)

I’ve been doing this (mostly) handwritten haiku routine since the beginning of the month. It’s a little extra effort, but it’s kind of fun doing something different. The idea came from a post on Colin’s blog (the newly retitled First initial, last name), and was subsequently encouraged by a few of my favorite commenters.

Two and a half weeks into this experiment, I’m starting to wonder if I might be able to get some input from my little audience of haiku readers. If anyone would be so inclined, I’d love to be able to post a few guest haiku of the handwritten variety. Anyone willing to try is welcome to send an image of a self-written haiku. They don’t have to be in any particular style of writing — however you write is fine. It can be as artistic or as straightforward as you like.

If you’d like to help me out, please email any offerings or questions to me at howard@nonbreakingspace.com. Please feel free to take part, or click here to check out the contributions collected thus far.

NOTE: Though it didn’t occur to me to post this originally, I want to make sure everyone understands that I won’t try to take credit for any contributions sent my way. I will credit each one as the author specifies, including a link to the contributor’s website if applicable. Also, images can be hosted here, or served from a third-party site such as Flickr.

reading most recent
unemployment statistics,
alone in office

*
Today’s haiku was brought to you in part by twitter.com. More specifically, it was born of a status message on twitter.com by one of our local journalists, Monica Yant Kinney:

“reading latest unemployment #s alone in the office.”

I paraphrased her tweet a little, which is why I feel compelled to acknowledge it. It struck me as a fine use of a tactic my favorite creative writing professor used to refer to as “show and tell.” Put simply that’s the practice of not communicating through bluntly obvious statements, but giving information that illustrates of the idea you want to communicate. I don’t know if it was an intentional illustration, but I thought it brilliantly concise.

I had almost forgotten about Nick Virgilio when I ran across an article about him in Thursday’s Daily News. And a shame it would have been to let Virgilio slip my mind completely.

Though I have only recently attempted the haiku form, I’ve admired it for much longer. Virgilio has been at the top of that admired list, especially since he was from the greater Philadelphia area. The aforementioned article is about an event to celebrate the life and work of the Camden haiku master twenty years after his passing.

And while I’m droning on about Virgilio, I should mention the Nick Virgilio Poetry Project — a fine website put up by Rutgers University in his honor. It has a nice archive of his work, including my favorite of his haiku:

my spring love affair:
the old upright Remington
wears a new ribbon

Most people seem to like “Lily” better, but whatever your taste in haiku, you should check out the site.