Wednesday, March 21, 2007

200K Haiku

I've written my share of ride reports in prose, but for last Saturday's 200K, I decided to do something a bit different. I've long been a fan of haiku and I've even had a few published, so I figured why not write a few haiku to convey a bit about the 200K.

If you want a couple of good prose reports, check out these two:

Nat Pellman's: http://tinyurl.com/2fd5v2

and

Chris Lowe's: http://tinyurl.com/yrmaeq




Gary Snyder knows
randonneurs rise earlier
than students of zen.


Riding to the ride:
Uneventful except for
Two jaywalking elk.


Not much is needed.
One gear, one crank, two pedals.
Quick and persistent.


Rando wool fashion,
Even on Saint Patrick's Day
More blue shirts than green.


Ti bike, wool jersey
Leather saddle, GPS.
Still have to pedal.


Suburbs awaken.
More climbing past Dash Point.
Pack away warm clothes.


The river, the road,
the riders and their machines,
all in one valley.


The ride's real challenge?
The Black Diamond Bakery.
Too tasty to skip.


Road to Greenwater:
Randonneurs and frog voices
Return every spring.


Randonneur's pit stop:
Sandwich, Cheetos and Ice Tea.
Who cares what gas costs?


Randonneur ethics:
The fast leave water bottles
for those further back.


Feeling pretty smart
watching the rain drops roll off
plastic-wrapped cue sheet.


Rewriting Pink Floyd
wearing wool in the drizzle:
comfortably damp.


Rain and wet manure
remind me to be grateful
for Wayne's good mud flap.


Greg and Mary's true
secret chili seasoning?
It's 200K.




8 comments:

lynnef said...

nice!

Christian Fritze said...

Wonderful. I've been a fan of verse novels in the past, and this ride report flows and charms as well as the best of them.

GhostRider said...

That is great stuff -- tasty "tidbits" of your ride!

Jill Homer said...

Very nice.

Anonymous said...

Illuminating
us to your rides brings great joy
warming our bodies

Tai-po said...

Where's the haiku about not being a nutritional role model? =)

Anonymous said...

Absolutely Brilliant.

pallaver said...

Hi Kent,

My friend actually sent me a link with regards to the Great Divide Race and while looking for home-made fenders I ran across your website (and you home-made famous fenders) and the GDR again.

I hope to do the GDR in the next 5-10 years, whenever I have the time. I'm more of a road-bike tour person though, did a 9 day 1000 mile trip last year in Japan which was fantastic (you can read about it on my blog).

Thanks for the interesting information, great pictures, and hopefully I'll post my bike and it's fenders soon enough.

Since, pallaver