I was playing around with haiku last year and wrote a light-hearted one about Athens in summer:

August heat stifles,
hordes in shorts gawp and jostle:
Acropolis now!

I liked the last line and was convinced that it was mine, but now I discover that a 1989 TV comedy bore the same title. I never saw the series and have no recollection of hearing anything about it until it was mentioned on radio a few days ago. My question: did I make it up independently of the TV series writers or was it buried deep in my memory? It's not a serious problem, because I've never had the haiku published nor entered it into any competitions, but I'm slightly unnerved by the fact that I appear to have plagiarised a phrase that I was convinced was mine when I wrote it. I do occasionally remember longish phrases verbatim, so it’s possible that I remembered it and then forgot that I was remembering it, err, if you see what I mean?

Has anything similar happened to someone else?

Tony

The phrase itself looks like a play on the film title Apocalypse Now. I've never heard of any TV series called Acropolis Now, but if I'd been doing a haiku on athenian olympics, that last line would probably have come to me if I was in particularly inspired form (rare).

Thing is, copyright is not the same as a patent. If you came up with the same concept of your own accord, copyright can't hold you back. Patents are a blatant way of suppressing anyone else doing what you've managed yourself, regardless of how they come up with the idea.

So it's just as well you can't (to my knowledge) patent writing.

I have to confess to not knowing what Haiku is, I thought it was some sort of Chinese self defense or something like Tai Chi

Katerina

Katerina - it's a 3 line, 17 syllable verse (originating from Japan) which tends to have some kind of focus on the seasons. However, the English version can be less strict in form, which makes it a little easier!

Join the Haiku & Short Poetry Group and find out more!! We're all very welcoming!

)

A
xxx

It's a type of short poetry. Three lines of verse of the form:

1 - five syllables.
2 - seven syllables.
3 - five syllables.

Usually doesn't rhyme. In fact, I believe it's supposed to not rhyme.

<Added>

I thought I was fast
But Holly B is faster
It's just not cricket

<Added>

odd. first time I looked, Holly's message was above mine. Oddball WW server...

You took the words right out of my mouth, IB!! Now where have I heard that phrase before??...

)

A
xxx

There's no copyright in a title, Tony, so you're safe anyway! I do think you could have come up with it independently: it's a joke asking to be made.

I'm not sure it's ever happened to me in writing, but I often used to see a potential photograph which looked so right, so meant, and then find that it had something (structure, joke) with some very well-known image. It wasn't plagiarism in the obvious sense, but if you train your ability to see with other people's art, that can't help shaping how you do your own.

Emma

<Added>

tsk! something in common(structure, joke) with some very well-known image

Oh, erm... I'm still confused. So I could 3 write sentences, and as long as they have the correct syllables, call it Haiku? But that's daft, my seven year old niece could do that!

My niece called Amy
made some footsteps in the snow
and then they were gone.

There, I've just made a Haiku.

Katerina

I think the aim is to pack as much meaning or emotional impact as possible into the seventeen syllables, which is quite a hard discipline.
Tony

Haiku is great for making a few words as punchy as possible. It's also great for holding an online conversation.

Try it next time you're on MSN, IRC or something. Only Haiku form communication is allowed.

Okay, here's another one...


I built a snowman
with a carrot for a nose
but then he melted.

I'm getting good at this

Katerina

You're great at this, Katerina! I think your haiku are funny, witty and sharp. Also very honest which I like.

See:

Anyone can have
fun with haiku: they're fizzy
but no hangovers!

)

A
xxx

I believe this thread
has gone somewhat off topic;
Get back to the point.

Oops, sorry sir

Katerina

<Added>

Or rather

I'm sorry for that
I didn't mean to butt in
and now I'll sod off :)