Amid all of the news about COVID-19, it’s so easy to forget that the world is still spinning as it always did and that our daily lives, though disrupted and different, are still meant to be lived and enjoyed. Little things, perhaps once viewed as inconsequential or taken for granted, seem to take on greater meaning, such as dappled sunlight on a wooded path, the smell of jasmine in the air, or a cool breeze in Houston in mid-April. If it seems that we are waxing a bit poetic, it’s perfectly understandable because it’s April, and April is National Poetry Month.
In the past, the Harris County Law Library has celebrated National Poetry Month with an exhibit in the Law Library lobby and a series of blog posts, highlighting the poetry and verse that can be found (perhaps
surprisingly) in the law. We, like most spaces, are closed to the public, so an exhibit in our lobby did not seem quite feasible. However, we do invite you to look back and read our past posts for a bit of a chuckle:
Poetry of the Bench and Bar: The Calf-Path or Precedents (April 1, 2016);
Poetry of the Bench and Bar: Wills in Verse (April 8, 2016);
Poetry of the Bench and Bar: The Taxman Cometh (April 15, 2016);
Poetry of the Bench and Bar: The Things That Lawyers Know About Earth Day (April 22, 2016);
Poetry of the Bench and Bar: Quoth the Raven, In Re Love (April 29, 2016);
Poetry of the Bench and Bar: Poetic Justice (April 26, 2017);
Talking with the Taxman About Poetry (April 11, 2018); and
Legal Tech and the Justice Gap — A Few Haiku for Poetry Month (April 30, 2019).
You can also visit Gallagher Law Library Judicial Humor page for some parodies, humorous plaintiffs, and veiled references.
Or you can go about creating your own poem. If that sounds intimidating, it’s okay to start small, as in how about a haiku? After all, today, April 17, is International Haiku Poetry Day. To refresh your memory, a haiku, is a type of poem originating in Japan that is unrhymed and, in the English-language format, follows a pattern of three lines consisting of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. It finds its inspiration in nature and the natural world and generally focuses on the seasons. Other characteristics include two juxtaposed subjects separated by punctuation and an unusual observation made by comparing the two subjects. For a good explanation of haiku, see Haiku-Poetry.org. You can find some examples of famous haiku written by Japanese masters, such as Matsuo Basho and Kobayashi Issa, here. There are also plenty of how-to guides online to help you along if you are having trouble.
If creating your own poem still seems a bit daunting, no worries! April 17 is also National Cheeseball Day. Feel free to check out those recipes on Pinterest and the Food Network and try your hand at crafting your own delicious cheese masterpiece. There is an added bonus, too. As luck would have it, April 17 is also Malbec World Day, honoring that wonderful medium- or full-bodied red wine from Argentina. What better pairing is there than wine and cheese? So, just sit back and relax with your cheeseball and glass of Malbec and simply experience the poetry that’s all around you. Who knows? Maybe, you will be inspired to write that haiku after all.