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Bleeding Heartland is a community blog for Democrats and progressives in the state of Iowa. Join up, post your thoughts as comments or diaries, and help build up current majorities and keep our leadership honest.

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- desmoinesdem
- Mark Langgin

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- Iowa politics in 2008
- Iowa politics in 2009 (pt. 1)
- Iowa politics in 2009 (pt. 2)
- National politics in 2009 (pt. 1)
- National politics in 2009 (pt. 2)
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Haiku contest results

by: desmoinesdem

Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 06:47:28 AM CST

I posted my haiku diary at a few other places and liked so many of the entries.

Favorites are after the jump.

desmoinesdem :: Haiku contest results

Thanks to all four Bleeding Heartland readers who submitted haikus. That would be hedge:

egging on downturn
are economic scrooges,
the party of no

tmlindsey:

GOP don't rhyme
While sweatheart deals run amok
Haikus: what the fuck?

We got a funny Republican perspective on health care reform from mirage:

You'r from Nebraska?
We NEED that vote on this crap!
Tell us what you need!!!!

ragbrai08 gave us an outsider's take:

corn fields to the left
traveling through Iowa
soybeans on the right

A look at the IA-03 race:

for the grandchildren
for the love of Iowa
a wrestling coach

And a comment on the Republican primary for governor:

GOP sweepstakes
A Branstad restoration?
God picks BVP

Over at The Iowa Republican, most of the entries had to do with the IA-Gov or IA-03 races or health care reform. It got nasty in the thread, but a few of the entries were funny. I liked this from anonymous:

We can't hear Steve Deace
In the northwest of Iowa
That is very good

At MyDD a couple of people composed haikus about Christmas. From chrisblask:

A time to be one
Another to be many
And one to be all

And from realtarheel:

Christmas IS a joy
Jews just don't understand it
But Jesus was one

Bob Brigham has no time for Democratic sellouts, and his haiku was in character:

The senate bill sucks
Dems cave before conference
FUBAR dumbasses

Judeling conveyed some progressive disappointment in a more subtle way:

Winds of Change and Hope
A Country of dust and rocks
The Man of Caution

Jerome Armstrong wrote one haiku himself:

Jane does the Grover
Cenk Young Turks the two by four
So its on with Rahm

Jerome also posted a "quasi-haiku" that his grade-school age son wrote and stuck on the refrigerator:

Obviously everything,
Many things,
Nothing left,
Impossible to count!

Speaking of parenting, at Mother Talkers most aspiring poets picked up on the Christmas food angle. For instance, from Suzanne77:

My kitchen's a mess
from heat my hair stands on end
the floor is gritty

mamacita shared a perspective on interfaith marriage:

After presents
from the tree, a movie and Chinese food
yes, we're both

baker baker was feeling the holiday stress:

family's annoying
this year it's too much to take
small kitchen - GET OUT!!!

I felt bad for Village:

Christmas is over
And no chocolate this year
Bah! Humbug! times two.

My favorite Mother Talker haiku was from lyn:

Warm savory smells
Roasted chicken made with love
Boys plead for ramen

So true, except in my house they plead for macaroni and cheese.

Ultimately, I was unable to pick just one winner. The two haikus that sounded most like poetry (to my ear) were Judeling's and ragbrai08's entry on Jim Gibbons.

Tags: haiku, Poetry, Christmas, IA-03, IA-Gov, 2010 elections, parenting, Terry Branstad, Jim Gibbons, Bob Vander Plaats, (All Tags)

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Haiku contest results | 11 comments

IA-02 (0.00 / 0)

Miller-Meeks talks health
while wearing a white lab coat
authoritative

by: ragbrai08 @ Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 08:34:31 AM CST

by: you @ soon

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IA-Gov (0.00 / 0)

Path to victory
must get along with others
advice for Culver

by: ragbrai08 @ Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 08:54:05 AM CST

by: you @ soon

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no kidding (0.00 / 0)

I have a post coming on that in the next day or two.

TEAPublican had a haiku for Culver too:

Merry Christmas Chet,
here is a calculator.
Use it next year please.

Invite other Iowa political junkies to join us at Bleeding Heartland.

by: desmoinesdem @ Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 09:59:22 AM CST

[ Parent ]

could you explain to me (0.00 / 0)

IA's love of wrestling coaches? This is the third one I've heard about. I pride myself on "getting" most things Iowan, but this one has me stumped. My haiku represents exactly how it comes across to me.

Without hesitation, I can say that a coach, even a successful one, would not win a federal seat in MD. Coaches are associated with gym socks or in some cases, corruption. And wrestling? Our most popular not-football/basketball sport is lacrosse, but lacrosse coaches do not continue on to financial advising or congress. I couldn't even give you a name.

Some donors have lined up behind Gibbons, clearly investing in "love of (wrestling) coach." Please help me understand this concept.

by: ragbrai08 @ Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 11:15:27 AM CST

[ Parent ]

wrestling is the only sport (0.00 / 0)

where Iowa and Iowa State consistently are contenders for the national title (along with OK and OK State, if memory serves). I don't think wrestling is more popular than football or basketball at the high school level, but of course there's pride in having great college wrestling teams year after year, Iowa wrestlers competing at the Olympics, etc.

A friend thinks that Gibbons was recruited primarily to take advantage of the huge number of Cyclone fans in the third district, as opposed to fans of wrestling in particular.

I don't fully understand why the big Republican money men are getting behind Gibbons rather than Zaun.

Who's the third wrestling coach? Dan Gable is the only one that comes to mind besides Gibbons. I know some Democrats were really worried Gable might run for governor in 2006, but I don't think anyone is as worried about Gibbons.

Invite other Iowa political junkies to join us at Bleeding Heartland.

by: desmoinesdem @ Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 16:13:50 PM CST

[ Parent ]

ok, (4.00 / 1)

i can understand support of a winning tradition. Still, I don't see coaching as the stepping stone to financial advising or political office, esp at this level.

The third one -- it was someone who has either run or held office in the past. I'll try to remember. It may have been at state level. I just recall thinking "another coach," and I think it was wrestling.

by: ragbrai08 @ Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 17:01:44 PM CST

[ Parent ]

seems weird to me too (0.00 / 0)

and Gibbons certainly doesn't seem to have a solid grasp of federal policies. But if Jesse Ventura can get elected governor of Minnesota, I suppose people could view a wrestling coach as a good candidate here.

Invite other Iowa political junkies to join us at Bleeding Heartland.

by: desmoinesdem @ Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 20:47:23 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Ahem... (4.00 / 1)

Equating professional wrestling with college wrestling is just wrong. Very, very, wrong.

As for me, everything I need to know about getting along with politics at the national level I learned at veteran's camp from Dan Gable, thank you very much.

And in the course of lobbying for those public policy interests I hold near and dear to my heart? How many times do you think I have been literally tossed around by Secret Service, Pentagon Police, Capitol Police, Supreme Court Police, U.S. Marhsalls, etc...??? And I never lose my temper or allow myself to be in a position to either injure someone, or to be injured. And I attribute that to having access to world class coaching, starting at an early age.

So there. Case closed.

Che! Che! Che Guevara!! El gobierno a la chingada!!

by: EltonDavis @ Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 23:19:20 PM CST

[ Parent ]

so, (4.00 / 1)

Case closed

you'll be voting for Coach Gibbons?

by: ragbrai08 @ Tue Dec 29, 2009 at 17:46:37 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I believe I can answer that question (4.00 / 1)

I'm guessing that Elton will leave the ballot line for Boswell's race blank, or else write in someone's name.

Then again, he may stay home in November. As he has explained to me,

1) Voting only encourages them, and

2) If voting could change anything, it would be illegal already.

Invite other Iowa political junkies to join us at Bleeding Heartland.

by: desmoinesdem @ Tue Dec 29, 2009 at 18:18:04 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I can see, my work here is done... (4.00 / 1)

By golly DmD, I think you got it...

Oh, and one more thing, "Vote with your ass, every chance you get". As in, put your butt where your mouth is.

Che! Che! Che Guevara!! El gobierno a la chingada!!

by: EltonDavis @ Tue Dec 29, 2009 at 18:42:37 PM CST

[ Parent ]