International Haiku Poetry Day

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.

Talking With the Taxman About Poetry

April is known for many things including rain showers and reveries of Paris. It also signals the start of spring, a season of birth, growth, and renewal. Clouding the fresh bloom of its arrival, however, is a dreaded annual visitor -- the taxman. Fortunately, April is National Poetry Month as well, the perfect celebration to inspire the spirit and banish thoughts of the tax collector's exacting toll. 

We at the Harris County Law Library can think of no better way to send the taxman back to his ledger book than to share a poem. As we celebrate National Poetry Month (as well as Tax Law Resource Month), a bit of written verse may be just what we all need. Recognizing both of April's themes, we've selected a poem by the famous Russian writer, Vladimir Mayakovsky, entitled "Talking with the Taxman About Poetry" which you can read here in full on the Poetry Foundation's website. (Mayakovsky would celebrate his 125th birthday this year. He took his own life on April 14th, 1930, but in the years since his death, his popularity has continued to grow.)

For more poetry and judicial verse, visit the Law Library's National Poetry Month exhibit. Currently on display in the lobby, this exhibit features legal opinions written in rhyme. Inspired by various sources including Edgar Allan Poe, Dr. Seuss, and Leann Rimes, these opinions reflect the wit and wisdom of their authors as well as the occasional levity of the court. For more examples of parody and verse in legal decisions, visit the Gallagher Law Library Judicial Humor page.

National Poetry Month: Poetry of the Bench & Bar

April is National Poetry Month, and the Harris County Law Library is celebrating. We're shining a spotlight on the Poetry of the Bench and Bar with an exhibit featuring poetic judicial opinions and poems written by and about attorneys. Visit the Law Library all month long to view the exhibit.

Poetry of the Bench and Bar: Poetic Justice

We've been shining a spotlight all month long on the Poetry of the Bench and Bar with an exhibit featuring poetic judicial opinions and poems written by and about attorneys. Other legal poetry has been highlighted elsewhere including the Gallagher Law Library Judicial Humor page and, very recently, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.  In a case involving a transgender teen in Gloucester County, Virginia, Judge Andre Davis borrowed the words of Palestinian-American writer and poet Naomi Shihab Nye to comment on the teen's bravery in asserting his rights. 

Some say that poetry and the law are not compatible, that law is prosaic and measured, and that the business of law should deal in pragmatism, not poesy. Others disagree, arguing that poetry is sometimes appropriate if not necessary, as it can convey the sentiment of a decision better than the calculus of reasoned judgment. Historically (and poetically), law and verse have shared origins, as expressed in verse by one JW London over a century ago. In closing, here's London's 1894 poem fromThe Law Times:

In days of old did law and rhyme,
A common pathway follow,
For Themis in the mythic time,
Was sister of Apollo.