Sylvia got some of our friends and family to write haikus for my 65th birthday. Here are most of them, along with some random photos from the last few weeks. Cake-cutting photo by Emilio Rojas.

I think I’m going to take most of April off from blogging and tweeting. If you get bored with waiting for new posts, maybe add some haikus of your own as comments here! Any topic is okay, they don’t have to be about me or my birthday. Happy spring!

By the way, what is a haiku exactly? Well, there’s a precise Japanese formula, but in English it’s a little vague. Generally you’re talking about a three-line poem with seventeen or so syllables, distributed in a pattern of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables. But the rules aren’t crucial, you can have plus or minus a syllable or two here or there. It’s all about the twist, the insight, the zap, the aha.

Rudy paints the sea
A giant mutant lobster
Shooting laser beams
    —Vernon Head

Hey babe let’s go out tonight
Under the full moon
It’s raining cherry blossoms
    —Sylvia Rucker

on a 4 D trip
o life is a flabber gas
wave on ye old tree
    —Georgia Rucker

Odd cephalopod
Alien contacts on Earth
Rudy knew it first
     —Penny Thomas

We miss Rudy’s bash
Many friends brave winter storm
Let them eat cake, yes!
    —R.U. Sirius and Eve

chicken chicken chick
chicken chicken chicken chick
chicken chicken hen
     —Rudy Rucker, Jr.

Live long and prosper
Another trip ‘round the sun
Spring day, snowy hair
     —Nathaniel Hellerstein

O legendary
SF dude, scroll down, log off.
Young pups scratch at door.
     —Terry Bisson

He likes to meld (a lot!)
in the Grand Garden of hot
Heliogenic Breath
    —Henny Nijland

Wielding his brush and pen
the silver-haired patriarch
portrays strange worlds.
    —Michael Beeson

The fog lifts. Morning!
Rudy gazes out away,
Twinkling at the door.
    —Hilary Gordon

A violin plays
Celebrate, dance and jig
The family circles
    —Courtney Lasseter

new piles of spam
turn to a pineapple ham
real life always sweet
    —Georgia Rucker

Photographer extraordinaire
To you
Heureux Anniversaire
    —Zan Thomas

sixty-five, a number,
nothing more:
and, to be quite clear,
nothing less
    —Frank Thomas

Floods, landslides, tsunamis reign
Water abounding
One diamond drop, hovering
    —Helen Han

Gnarly nature flows
Gnarly writer wiser grows
Rudy 65, wow!
    —Emilio Rojas

Hot damn, it’s overflowing
March waterfall
Gnarly and pseudorandom
    —Sylvia Rucker

Rudy pleasure birthday
Number of rational
No, number of real!
    —Nick Herbert

frogs croak and rumble
rudy rucker ruminating
stochastic flesh is love
    —Michael Blumlein

I’m in Mendocino with Nancy on a little vacation.
I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to your party.
(Wait, how many syllables is that?)
    —Jon Pearce

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 27th, 2011 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Rudy's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.