Fred Phillips
1278 Concourse
Bronx, N.Y. 10456

I have found that publications which entertain a variety of verse-forms such as
villanelle, haiku and blank verse (if it is well written) tend to attract a
correspondingly varied readership.  Even "hip haiku" can be construed to be
somewhat high camp if it is spontaneous enough not to appear a contrived
accident.

Realistic haiku, of the Larry-Siegel-Playboy type throws a reader off-balance. 
Nobody's ready for it -- sticking it in here and there in the magazine without
announcing it in the Table of Contents, is like studding a dark garment with
little rhinestones, to set it off.  I know people who do it with straight
haiku, and it lends a higher tone to the general quality of their zines.  I
find, however, in writing haiku I cannot resist the opportunity to goof, and
nobody minds a little something which makes them smile at the end of an
interminably dreary day...

                           "Some think you are kind,
                        Proving how well they know you.
                              You are a Rat-Fink."

  [pp. 50 - 51, Letter 5, "Your 5 Cents Worth," NO-EYED MONSTER #7, Summer 1966]

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