The Haikommute

By · October 9, 2008 at 8:25 am · No comments · Arts and Events · Report an error ·
streetpoetry.jpg

It’s National Poetry Day, readers, so tap into your timbre, mik your metre, reject your rhymes and let’s have some tidy haikus about your daily commute. 3 lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables, and, as one of our team regurgitated:

Haikus are fun but

Sometimes they do not make sense

Refrigerator

They don’t need to be entirely serious. Another from our side:

Northern line commute

Read Lite, don’t look at my tits

Deoderise please

Let’s have them. Best one wins a badge and a special secret prize (we’ll rootle in our cupboards and find something handsome for you). Have a nice National Poetry Day!

Street Poetry image by Simon Crubellier via the Londonist Flickrpool

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  • Meaghan

    I know it’s supposed to be a haiku but I got carried away:

    Ode to the Shepherd’s Bush Station

    Shepherds Bush Central Line opened this week,
    It made all of W12 glad.
    I thought, “oh hurray, good for you TFL”
    It’s the best transport news that I’ve had.

    That first happy morning I shuffled through queues,
    Down the escalator shiny and new.
    I cut twenty minutes of my morning commute
    And, believe me, everyone at my work knew.

    The second day running, I hopped on at Bank,
    Pleased with my quicker trip home.
    I didn’t believe there’d be anything wrong
    With my transport of silver and chrome.

    Imagine my pain as at Holland Park station
    The conductor came over the speaker
    He said that the next stop was already closed
    My outlook could not have been bleaker.

    The very next morning I said “one more go
    I can’t write of this station just yet.
    I’ll still save some time on my morning commute,
    And really, how bad could it get?”

    The station was open, the website had said,
    And from just ‘cross the street it looked fine
    But a horde of pedestrians stood at the crosswalk
    so confused, I just stood in the line.

    It turned out the signals, the red and the green,
    Were not to be working that day.
    So the commutes stood there, as the cars just whizzed past,
    Wondering when they could get on their way.

    A single brave soul darted out in the road,
    The buses did skid to a halt.
    The rest of us followed that we weren’t the ones
    Nearly ground into asphalt.

    The station was open, the train came in fine
    And I was just left quite bemused
    Why someone had turned off the signals we needed
    To cross that road everyone used.

    So Shepherd’s Bush Station, I’m glad that you’re here
    And I’m glad the improvements are there.
    But to the powers that be with the light switches,
    Please have a slight bit of care.

    Don’t close the station the day after it’s done,
    And please note to update the maps.
    Don’t turn off the signals we need right outside,
    And for our part, we’ll mind the gap.

  • DeanN

    Crush of commuters
    Cooked at 40 degrees bakes
    A Victoria sponge

  • halcyonday

    your elbow is sharp
    we are wedged like sardines
    here in this wheeled can

  • chloeg

    Your coffee-bright eyes
    Please alight at Tufnell Park
    I think I love you

  • Lindsey

    Victoria Line
    You close to early for me
    Strand me in Brixton

  • Highfield

    The Sound of Music
    The carriage is alive!
    GET HEADPHONES

  • Working Class Hero

    ten minutes to wait
    platform swells with groans and feet
    why so keen to work

  • Lindsey

    Highfield, you’re playing fast and loose with the syllabic rules there but I admire your poetic ebullience (capital letters).

  • DeanN

    Must our sad haiku
    solely speak ill of the tube?
    Why not the weather?

  • palfrey

    Still stuck at Earls’ Court
    Never to bloody Wimbledon
    Ah! A lit board!

  • palfrey

    Alternately:

    Head stuck in a book
    Stations pass by unheeded
    Forgot my stop again

  • Highfield

    Beautiful morning
    The sun shines warm and brightly
    Door keys left inside

  • Highfield

    You have me down to a tee, Lindsey.

  • halcyonday

    Tickets please! the cry
    of the conductor is now
    ringing in my ears

  • halcyonday

    sharing glances across
    crowded aisle, you smile back,
    oh! commute romance!

    (sorry, it’s a slow day in the library. In so much as I am avoiding the invoices. Haikus are more fun.)

  • Tom Williams

    walking into work
    Borough market looks tasty
    a breakfast detour

  • Amanda Farah

    on my bicycle
    motorists, please don’t hit me
    off to a good start

  • Dave

    Bloody DLR
    It’s constantly fucked these days
    I can take no more

  • Dave

    or…

    Northern Line is warm
    Maybe just a little snooze?
    Shit! Was that my stop?

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