Customer Reviews

Pirate Haiku: Bilge-sucking Poems of Booty, Grog, and Wenches for Scurvy Sea Dogs

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Now here's a how-de-doo! Michael P. Spradlin, a successful writer of children's books, takes on adult type topics in the form of haiku - and makes it work. According to the dictionary (in case the reader has forgotten) 'A haiku is a non-rhymed verse genre. In Japanese, haiku has five sounds in the first part, seven in the second, and five again in the last part, using three horizontal lines. Haiku should use objective sensory images, and avoid subjective commentary.' Well, Spradlin doesn't stick to formulas or hard fast rules, but he does manage to keep the concept of haiku in this book devoted to Pirate talk. His subtitle makes his point ' Bilge-sucking poems of booty, grog, and wenches for scurvy sea dogs'. It is as though Spradlin is having as much fun finding ways to express his jibs as we have in reading them!

Pirates don't declare (5)
all of our precious loot as (7)
taxable income. (5)

Point made. The rules are intact and the message is fun. He gives variations on the theme of drinking and the resultant hangovers:

Grog Hangovers may
be one thing that can explain
Pirate surliness.

We don't like raiding
with hangovers; the screaming
gives you a headache.

Spradlin divides his poems into eight sections: A Pirate's Life for Me, Rum and Grog, On the Spanish Main, Wenches, In the South Pacific, Pirates V. Ninjas, Alone on an Island, and Crack on, Mateys. The real pun of this little book lies in the Introductions in which the author explains that these ditties were discovered in a long lost journal of the pirate One-Leg Sterling and explains the derivation of the voyage to the different parts of the raucous sea. It is a fun journey, one that will likely leave the reader memorizing favorite Haiku poems to entertain friends. This is a fine stocking stuffer (or whatever container you choose to favour!). Grady Harp, November 10

It's pirate haiku
Five, Seven, Five Syllables
Not all that funny

After reading werewolf, zombie, and vampire haiku by another author, I decided to give Michael Spradlin's Pirate Haiku a gander. With only one haiku per page, it's a book I read in half an hour while watching a Sunday football game without feeling groggy. The haiku loosely tell a pirate's story, but very loosely. I do think the device of having the book found near Japan, the home of haiku, was a clever touch. Most of the humor, like the "buck an ear" earrings is not very imaginative or inspired.

I like the cover design and a few of the playful tricks with print fonts, but for the most part, I found this book just OK.

Fantastic. If you enjoy this, you should also try Werewolf Haiku, Vampire Haiku, Zombie Haiku: Good Poetry For Your...Brains, and the geek-taclular Fanboy Haiku