Grooks

I received an email from wayne today. It was interesting, thoughtful, relevant. Initially, I felt compelled to respond immediately, but somewhere between there and here, I decided to instead write another blog entry. The only reason I mention it all is that I thought it only fitting to tip my hat (metaphorically speaking) to He Who Inspires.
Grooks:
Piet Hein (1905-1996) was a, hmm, difficult to say, actually. The Wikipedia article makes it seem like all he did was write poems and invent games, neither of which I can see being terribly lucrative. I came across him in Game Theory because he invented the game of Hex (which is a game played on a kind of checker board with hexagonal spaces, rather than squares. The players take turns filling in the hexagons, in an attempt to create a path between their two sides. One player goes from left to right, the other goes from top to bottom). As a further side note, Hex was also invented a few years later (but independently) by John Nash (of A Beautiful Mind fame). The only reason I mention Hein at all is that he is also known for writing hundreds of little poems, which he called Grooks. Here are a couple of my favs:

THE ONLY SOLUTION

We shall have to evolve
problem-solvers galore -
since each problem they solve
creates ten problems more.

SMALL THINGS AND GREAT

He that lets
the small things bind him
leaves the great
undone behind him.


NAIVE --

Naive you are
if you believe
life favours those
who aren't naive.


CONSOLATION GROOK

Losing one glove
is certainly painful,
but nothing
compared to the pain,
of losing one,
throwing away the other,
and finding
the first one again.

I like these little grooks. They are clever, wise, and wholesome. I have decided to write some grooks of my own.

Step 1: Think of some piece of advise you would like to get across.
Hmm, let’s see. How about…”brush your teeth.”

Step 2: Think of rhyming words that deal with grook idea:

Brush: mush, lush, blush, shush, ush,
Teeth: wreath, heath, ‘neath
Dental: mental, gentle, lentil, rental
Hygiene: why, Jean? lean, mean, keen, bean, wean, dean, Geen, spleen, teen, ‘zine, clean

Step 3: Construct grook.

BRUSH ‘EM!

An important part of living well
Is having good dental hygiene.
If you don’t brush them, your teeth will smell,
And your mouth will be always unclean.

BLUE WHALE GROOK:

Imagine the size
Of the mighty blue whale
90 meters long
From big head to big tail

ON BEING NICE

It’s nice to be nice
To those who are sad
For you never know
What a day they’ve had!

ON GROOKS:

As far as poems go
I like grooks a lot
Their rhyme scheme is simple
And they’re full of good thoughts

I’m only at 470, so now I’ll try to write a 20 word story:
No matter how hard Billy Jr. tried, the child could never be what Billy Sr. wanted of his first born: male.

505.