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| Taken last July, this photo shows an oncoming Haboob. |
We’re trying to spread the word on monsoon and dust storm safety and we want to reach as many people as possible, which is where you come in!
After kicking things off yesterday with some driving tips and that cautionary video, we’re launching a “Haboob Haiku” challenge on Twitter today and we’d like you to help us educate others.
Let us explain.
Besides being fun to say, ‘haboob’ is another word for a
dust storm and a Haiku is a type of poetry that conforms to a certain syllable
structure.
Put them together and you’ve got a Haboob Haiku!
Haikus are traditionally written in three lines – the first
line consists of five syllables, the second line has seven and the third line
ends with five. Usually these poems are focused on just about any subject, but
for our challenge we want you to stick with Haboobs, dust storms and our safety
theme (remember “Pull Aside, Stay Alive” from yesterday’s post?).
Ready for a few examples to get things started?
Dust cloud
approaching:
The air becomes
thick and brown.
Pull over and wait
Haboob engulfs you –
Vision obscured and
hazy –
Exit the roadway.
Drive with care in
dust
Pull aside and stay
alive
Wait for dust to
pass
Dust storms mean
danger
Zero visibility
Pull over and wait
We’d like you to post your Haboob Haiku creations on Twitter and include the hashtag #HaboobHaiku. Be sure to share with your friends and
let them know what it’s all about. After all, our No. 1 goal is safety and we
want to reach as many Arizona drivers as we can to help them prepare for the
monsoon and dust storm season ahead ... but who says we can’t have a little
fun, too? We're excited to see what you all come up with!!
While this is a cute idea, I think it's too highbrow for the types of people who would be foolish enough to drive into a dust storm.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered doing a presentation on a reality TV show? I think that's a better audience match for this message.
Why say then define? (5)
ReplyDeleteHaboobs are big dust storms. (7)
Just say big dust storms! (5)
#HaboobHaiku
Chubasco, haboob
ReplyDeleteOr Monsoon, it's all scary
So don't drive nor text!
#HaboobHaiku
We can't text in a dust storm?
Deleteonly if we can see our phones...
DeleteSand flies left and right
ReplyDeletechanging the day, stealing light
like sideways cyclone
Pull far off the road.
ReplyDeleteDo not let your break lights show.
Or you might get hit.
Haboob I see you,
ReplyDeleteEating my town with your dust.
Are we your dessert?
wall of sand blows in.
ReplyDeletepull off, lights off. listen to
that famed Kansas song.
No Twitter account!
ReplyDeleteYou return to dust.
Pull over in a dust storm
Or today's the day.
I can't see and I
ReplyDeleteCan't flee; I pull over & stop
Till haboob's passed me.
Who needs vision while moving forward?
ReplyDeleteLights On! Don't Stop!
... Nutcase: Ha! Boob!!
Skies above all brown?
ReplyDeletePull over now silly clown!
Don't be a dumbass.
Boiling, swirling dust.
ReplyDeletePull over. Lights off. Top up.
Haboobs are dirty.
Poet's comments concerning HABOOB haiku submitted below:
ReplyDeleteA sayinng, pehaps colloquial but certainly not original by this poet, was bantered about in Indiana circa 1950's went something like this:
"On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions, who at the dawning of victory, sat down to rest and resting - died."
In Arizona at certain places and times, the dust from these bleached bones becomes the substance of a "haboob" which prompts this submission of my Haboob haiku for the ADOT contest:
In Arizona,
A haboob lifts dust skyward.
Dust from sunbleached bones!
Copyright 2012 D.J. Ellingsberg
Tucson, AZ 85750-2405
rushing wall of sand
ReplyDeletedrivers surrender their road
desert roars dust reigns
When earth fills the sky,
ReplyDeletePull far off the road and hide,
And you'll stay alive.
ReplyDeleteBlowing in the wind
I see her in my back yard
Neighbor's cat, Haboob
Waste of tax money
ReplyDeleteBureaucrats, Morons, haBOOBs
Fire them this instant