From the beer blogs - Beer Haiku Daily
Once in a while I'm lucky enough to find a near-perfect intersection of beer and art. A couple of years ago I was delighted to find the Beer Haiku Daily blog and it's been a guilty pleasure ever since.
Haiku is an artfully simple form of Japanese poetry, written in three lines. The first and third line contain five syllables, the middle line has seven.
The site is run by an I.T. professional in Towson who goes by the nom de blog, Captain Hops. Captain Hops picked up his nickname during time spent in Portland, Ore., where he became a self-professed hop head. A few years ago he returned to the east from what he calls "the bleeding edge of hoppiness," and has been working his way through the robust array of craft brews in this region. He cites the Dogfish Heads, Clipper City's Heavy Seas, Allagash, Wild Goose, Troeg and Victory as beers and beer makers he likes. It was also upon his return to the East Coast that he launched the blog in June 2005.
Last week I spoke to the Captain about his blog and why he chose to combine his passion for beer with haiku.
"I spent five years in Japan when I was in high school. I found that with haiku, you can say a lot with a little and that's always appealed to me. Plus, it's absurd.
"When I was looking to start the blog, the name beerhaikudaily.com was available, so I took it. And I've had to live with that curse ever since."
A haiku a day since June 2005 amounts to, well, a bunch of them (sorry, I didn't go into journalism because I'm good at math.) But, as the Captain explains, "If you're forced to write a lot of them, you inevitably wind up with a few gems."
One he claims as a favorite goes:
after enough beers
my intelligence dazzles.
others are jealous.
The Captain also takes submissions from readers. Yours truly had a haiku published on the site back in October 2007.
So, today I'll leave you with this advice:
pour out a cold one.
get ready to laugh out loud.
beer haiku daily.
