Haiku Wednesday Part I

Haikus are pretty interesting forms of word art. A refresher of the rules: Haiku is one of the most important form of traditinal Japanese poetry. Haiku is a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. They can be created around anything…and to prove my point I have written the following haikus around a few random images for your viewing pleasure on this beautiful Wednesday.

I'd rather stab my eyes out.

Oh redneckery
Left turns for eight hours
Someone kill me now
—————–

A scene from the last act of Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye movie.

Mob husband gets mad
Table turner skyscraper
Ledge walks to the end
—————–

 

Johann Heinrich Füssli's 1802 oil painting "Nachtmahr"

 Monkey nightmare fuel
That jerk horse stands idly by
Please get off my chest
—————–

 

I can’t even look at this photograph for very long.

Teeth to eat my soul
Stop looking at me right now
Nuke it from orbit
—————–

I encourage you to join in on the fun. Please comment your own haiku on this post along with a link to the related image if applicable. 

Want more haikus? Check out these resources:

A Haiku Poem Blog

Morden Haiku Poetry

Haiku Pause

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Jan van Eyck’s painting, The Arnolfini Wedding, (c.1434, Oil on oak, panel of 3 vertical boards, 82.2 [panel 84.5] cm × 60 [panel 62.5] cm [32.4 in × 23.6 in], National Gallery, London)  is long believed to be a portrait of Giovanni di Arrigo Arnolfini and his wife Giovanna Cenami in a Flemish bedchamber. In the center of the picture is a mirror.

The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway, one of whom is believed to be the painter himself according to most scholarly reports. It is one of the many symbolic objects in this painting that has drawn much speculation.

Something as simple as this round mirror, even today, can lend intrigue to a room. People used to think they could see ghosts in mirrors and stories like Through the Looking Glass mystified mirrors as being potential portholes into other dimensions.

If you are looking for a round mirror to bring that sense of van Eyck to your home, check out this old circular decorative mirror available at the architectural warehouse Salvage One in Chicago for $550. (view details)

This mirror doesn’t appear to be convex, but the simpler gold leaf detail around it looks like scales of a snake and that (to me) is neat.

There is also this American giltwood convex mirror with a detailed mythical lion, sea horses and serpents from Crosskeys Antiques in Baltimore, MD.

No price is listed which would make me nervous, but it is a lovely piece, though I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the electric candles and the fact that one needs to plug this mirror in (see the wire?). The gold leaf and darker bronzed black color pair well together and I dig the faux riveting.

Another similar gold leaf convex mirror is available at Mystic Sisters Antiques in Killingworth, Connecticut, but again, no price is listed on the website.

As a bargain hunter (read: cheapskate), I would recommend checking out Nextag to do some price comparisons on convex mirrors as well as eBay and Amazon.

I think the mysticism convex mirrors hold is the distortion of a reality that can be held up to one’s face. The fact that carnival funhouses offer that distortion for entertainment is interesting as well…which might lead deeper philosophical questions about the people who have these mirrors in their home. If I had more wallspace I would be one of these people.

Perhaps it is healthy to have a small circle of distortion in one’s life to keep everything else in perspective.