Discuss Restroom Poetry here

[Dragon Phoenix]

Puzzle Link.

[This message has been edited by Sofis (edited 11-17-2002 06:04 PM).]

[jadesmar]

*waits (somewhat) patiently for a new puzzle to present itself*

[Gifthorse]

The poem which mentions the feathers doesn't seem to mention a specific name of anything. All the other seems to mention a specific noun like leaves, leady, hunter, child etc.

[RubberDuck]

From what I can tell all the poems seem to have something to do with the weather or hunting except the fourth one down.

[Duphrates]

[robichelli]

The fourth one down about the lady is the only one that makes a first person reference. That's different

[Gomez]

Idle speculation but maybe they're all synopses for films, songs etc... except one.

[Zot]

The fourth one down is the only one that doesn't make a reference to death or loss.

[robichelli]

Also the fourth one sounds like a prostitiute advertisement, while all the others make references to nature

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Even if I had a sense of humor, I wouldn't laugh at this sentence

[Skellum]

Maybe the poets "signed" their work by hiding their names in the poems?

Will wrote the first one, Rich, Elle, Tim & Alan the others. The only "unsigned" one is the 5th.

[edit] Wait, that doesn't work - Eve could have written the 5th one. [/edit]

[This message has been edited by Skellum (edited 11-20-2002 11:24 AM).]

[robichelli]

According to dictionary.com:

Haiku:
A Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.

4 is the only one that doesn't mention nature or the seasons

[RubberDuck]

Mabye we could take one line from each haiku and combine them to make new ones

[Brainjuggler]

I couldn't help but notice a refrence to the seasons. The second one mentions snow (winter), in the third the doe lies in blossoming flowers (summer?), the fifth says "spring breeze", and the last mentions turning leaves and "tween summer and fall." What season to fish hunt mosquitoes?

Just an observation.

[Braindamaged]

True, one poet did not talk about seasons or animals or nature BUT doesn't seem a bit easy for this board? I was more concerned about the bad spelling in the first one (fishes?)

[JustCurious]

Fishes is an acceptable pluralization of fish... fish is also acceptable, and is used more often, but either is correct.

We seem to be going quite a bit on subject matter of the haikus. Perhaps I'm wrong, but this seems a bit too simple to be the intended answer... looking at the history of puzzles on this site, I'd guess it has something to do with a message inside the poetry or something similar... but I have no idea what yet.

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When suddenly, all the air molecules moved to the other side of the room! (It's one of those things that either happens to you, or it doesn't)

[robichelli]

Yeah, It does seem to easy...

[oriet]

Every line count - 5th,7th,5th letter
all have at least 1 dou"bb"le except #4
some have multiple doubles.

an "h" as 5th or 7th in each except
#3

Counting lines from top 5th, 7th, 5th
dou"bble" "t's"

[Changabooniggiwan]

For a good time call...

is a common start to sentences written on the walls of rest rooms (so I hear). I can imagine some Haiku enthusiasts working to the challenge of taking washroom grafitti and changing it into poetry, perhaps as the first line.

Is it possible that the first line of each of the presented Haikus are the words of a piece of grafitti?

Mosquitoes hunted - Call DEET.

Freezing in the snow? Call U-Warm central heating services.

Hunter tracks his prey - Killing by contract, call Big Ron.

For a good time call Mme Fifi's Chapel of Flesh.

It sings its last song...? (Odd one out?)

The leaves are blushing...? (or maybe this one?)

Changa



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Pih secap san iedira roft newi.

[El Camino]

Although I don't think that that's the answer...

"It sings its last song -- Call Joe's Jukebox Repair"

[Jinxkitten]

"But does it not seem as if one of the poets isn't playing the same game the others are? "

So what 'game' are the others playing, i wonder...

Assuming (perhaps foolishly? LOL) that each one was written intact, the 'game' must have been obvious from the very first one, that the writer of the second one could follow it...

Aaaarg! why must i be addicted to something so difficult...Word searches.. must change addiction to word searches...
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Carpe Noctem

[This message has been edited by Jinxkitten (edited 11-20-2002 03:07 PM).]

[ZutAlors!]

Is the "game" perhaps chess, as in "some lady of the dark night"?

Too bad I can't tease out any other chess reference.

[Jinxkitten]

OK, random bits that someone else might make sense of...

• #2 could referance 'The Prince and the Pauper', anyone recognise any others?
  
• #3 "arrow-felled doe" does are NOT fair game for hunting, in most places.
  
• All except the last show something 'unfair', i.e., hunger, death, the lady who won't 'put out'.. the last one expresses a 'balance'
  
• #5 is the only one with a single capital letter... the others all have 2.
  

Alright, someone make sense of this... Please

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Carpe Noctem

[robichelli]

I doubt this is anything, but # four could reference The Catcher in the Rye you know, the scene with the prostitute

[cuban smoker]

Originally I had picked out the seasonal reference, and decided #4 was odd one out.

But now I'm interested in the game reference. Maybe we can find other "games" hidden away in the haikus...

[Dragon Phoenix]

Mosquitoes hunted,
fishes battle for their food.
Some will go hungry.

[rydiafan]

Freezing in the snow,
the poor child sees the rich child...
He's the same, but warm.

[rydiafan]

Here's an alternate theory. I'm able to find ways of ending a game hidden within most of them.

Mosquitoes hunted,
fishes battle for their food.
Some will go hungry.

Freezing in the snow,
the poor child sees the rich child...
He's the same, but warm.

Hunter tracks his prey.
Arrow-felled doe lies among
blossoming flowers.

For a good time call
some lady of the dark night
'cause I won't put out.

[JAFO]

Just an idea.

It seems to me that one commonly finds (or writes) peoples telephone numbers in bathroom stalls. ie. "For a good time call ------ at ###-#####."

I believe that each Haiku is made from transposing the telephone #s using the telephone key pad and incorporating those letters into the Haiku.

Therefore, I think we should be trying to back out phone #'s (and possibly peoples names) from the Haikus. And then look for which one has an "illegal" # or something.

It may be something like the first letters of all the nouns are the phone # or some other pattern.

Hope this helps. I certainly could be completely wrong.

[rowatt]

Is this game a war ->

From mid-1943, 456 Squadron "Mosquitoes hunted" German Ju88 fighters, which were attacking vulnerable Coastal Command aircraft. When located, the German twin-engine fighters often attempted to escape but were usually caught by the faster Mosquitoes

[Jinxkitten]

Hmm.. JAFOs idea would certainly allow for the writer of #2 to have known the game the writer of #1 was playing... if he was smarter than me, of course.. LOL

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Carpe Noctem

[cuban smoker]

And to finish rydiafan's thought, I found "leave" in the final one.

So perhaps the fifth one is not playing the same game for those reasons...

[lurker]

If this was truly a game, rather than a puzzle, I would think each successive haiku plays off the previous one. For example:

The first haiku ends with "some will go hungry". The second is about a poor child who is probably hungry.

The second and third don't fit this pattern. But..

The third ends with "blossoming flowers". The fourth is possibly about a beautiful young woman, or a "blossoming flower".

The fourth ends with "'cause I won't put out". The fifth is about a bird who cannot put out another song.

The fifth ends with "to feel the spring breeze". And the sixth is about other seasons.

[MatthewV]

The rules binding the haikus seem to "the game" be vague and unclear...I find it easy to create a rule that will exclude any one of the poems.

But could it not be more than one haiku?
But does it not seem as if one of the [\i]poets[i] isn't playing the same game the others are?

Using puzzle logic that doesnt always work: It shouldnt be the 1st (but it in this situation top may not mean first) or the 2nd because they are the starters of the game. The other 4 are open...not much help

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give it a name, change its face, mimic, nickname, personalities your concrete box or life. hammer right through it. death silences it. life is a light that rings like a bell. i listen. i am deaf, but i listen.

[julietcf14]

I think each is a Haiku with the 5-7-5 syllables except poem #2

Freezing in the snow,
the poor child sees the rich child...
He's the same, but warm.

I believe child is a two syllable word (chI'ld)which would make the second line 9 syllables instead of 7.

[CrystyB]

actually, a syllable must contain a vowel, and thus child is a one-syllable word. It even sound like that, since it comes out all-at-once. So they all are Haiku's.

[ZutAlors!]

For completeness, here is the hint included on the main page (invisible): In order to find out which of the poems is the odd one out, you will first need to figure out what the poems refer to... doing this requires a certain amount of specialized knowledge, but nothing that would require a PhD in the appropriate field.

[Gifthorse]

In # 4.
Feathers is a noun but "feathers" are only things that the subject posseses.

The Subject is represented as "IT".

All the others haikus have proper subject names, doe, hunter, lady, mosquitoes.


In #1 however, there is no adjective to describe the nouns. Where as in the other nouns come with adjectives.

poor, child
arrow-felled doe, blossoming flowers
dark night
pure feathers
blushing leaves, cold dew

ALSO Wh does the second haiku have " .... " at the end?

[DredPiratWestley]

Ok, the last line of the puzzle asks, "...does it not seem that one of the poets isn't playing the same game(singular) as the others...?" This makes me wonder if the haikus are coded "moves" in a game that they are playing that one of the poets doesn't recognize, or abide by ... or perhaps playing a separate game altogether. I'm thinking that the four corresponding poems may represent moves in a game like Monopoly, or Clue, or perhaps a verbal party game or something, but I have no idea which game it could be. Ideas?

[Legion]

I was gonna go down the route of looking at the subject of each haiku

#5 is a swan?

[This message has been edited by Legion (edited 12-03-2002 12:11 PM).]

[Peekay]

This is along the same lines as some things mentioned before, but number 4 seems to be the only one that doesn't present a dichotomy between life and death.
1. Fish going hungry/fish getting mosquitoes
2. Freezing poor child/warm rich child
3. Arrow-felled doe/blossiming flowers
5. Dead (dying) songbird/spring breeze
6. Balance between summer and fall

This interpretation takes spring and summer to stand for seasons of growth and life, while fall and winter are withering and death. What bothers me about this interpretation is it doesn't seem to make full use of the clue. In particular, I think there might be significance to the phrase:"nothing that would require a PhD in the appropriate field." I just haven't found what the significance might be yet.