Temperatures are up and bus fares are down, as Kansas City suffers another week of unsafe air. But there’s nothing like elevated pollution to fire up our inner poets.
Wednesday marked the eighth time this summer that the Mid-America Regional Council has issued an Ozone Alert. In the past three years, the air has reached an unsafe level so many times that the city is now facing tougher pollution controls.
Which brings us back to our inner poets.
This month, MARC is offering a unique way to spend that time cooped up inside protecting your lungs. Do as the Japanese do: write Haiku. James Joerke, MARC’s Air Quality Program Manager, says the group came up with the idea of an AirQ Haiku contest during a routine meeting last year.
Apparently, a couple hundred Kansas Citians were smitten with the Japanese art form, too. Joerke says MARC received more than 200 entries for the first contest last August thanks to words of mouth and e-mail.
Now in its second year, MARC is taking submissions for the 2007 contest until September 15. We may not have the skills of famous Haiku master Basho, but we decided to relieve some air pollution frustration with a little Japanese verse of our own.
asthma attacks flare
drive to suburban strip mall
for Walgreens refill
council vetoes health
approves another sprawling
mega-store tax break
fancy JoCo house
impractical for commute
but bound to impress
my shiny new bike
fearful of cell-phone drivers
hides in the garage
lazy kids rejoice
another afternoon to
eat chips, play Halo
To submit your haiku and get in the running for a free bike from River Market Cyclery, go to this site. -- Carolyn Szczepanski
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