21st Challenge No. 34

Dot-com rise-and-fall haiku.

Published June 30, 2000 7:27PM (EDT)

Idea! Financing!
Web launch! IPO! Soaring
stock! Plummeting stock!

In this contest we return to the poetic form of haiku -- that calm and timeless way of encountering reality. We invite readers to apply the haiku form and sensibility to the current economic moment -- when so many high-tech hopes have apparently been dashed, and yet others are still aborning.

Readers may submit up to three haiku poems. (The haiku is a three-line poem in the 5/7/5 form: first line five syllables, second line seven, third line five.)

E X A M P L E

Fluttering oak leaf?
toppled cypress? each high-tech
stock falls diff'rently

R U L E S

Send your submissions via e-mail only to salon21st@salon.com. Please include your full name and an accurate e-mail address so we can contact you if you're a winner. By submitting your entry you give Salon Technology permission to publish it. Deadline for entries is July 10.

P R I Z E S

The winning response will receive a copy of Salon Technology senior correspondent Andrew Leonard's book, "Bots: The Origin of New Species."

In two weeks we'll publish a winner and some selected entries -- then start over a couple weeks after that with a whole new challenge.


By Charlie Varon

Charlie Varon is a humorist and playwright. His works include "Ralph Nader Is Missing" and "Rush Limbaugh in Night School."

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By Jim Rosenau

Jim Rosenau is a writer, editor and software designer in Berkeley, Calif. Jim and Charlie are also co-founders of the citizens group Californians for Earthquake Prevention and partners in Mockingbird Media, which offers a full line of comic services.

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