Haiku 2023–281

like cafeteria trays

periods keep my thoughts from

running together

— —

In case you didn’t hear, the 2023 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was Jon Fosse from Norway. Among his many offerings is a seven-book series made up entirely of one run-on sentence. Full of curiosity, I decided to dip my toe into his world, first by reading and excerpt from his books, then by trying to write in my journal in a similar style.

As we would say conversationally here in the Midwest — yeah, no.

For thirty-some years of my life, I insisted that all my food stay segregated on my plate — nothing touched anything else. I would go so far as to eat everything separate as well- I moved on to my burger only after finishing all my fries. Stuffing gets eaten only after the turkey disappears. In perhaps the most embarrassing move of all, I ate my biscuits plain and consumed sausage gravy like it was soup. Cafeteria trays? They were absolutely the best things in the world for someone like me.

Don’t get me wrong, I admire the hell out of Mr. Fosse and his ability to write something that generates strong feelings in the reader. He managed to do so with me in just the few words that I read and not just in a “my fruit salad is touching my mashed potatoes” kind of way. I just need to have the things I read and the things I write in some sort of order so that my thoughts… and therefore who I am… don’t get muddled and run together. Yes, Mr. Fosse does use commas and the occasional question mark, but that’s not enough. Periods. Periods are mandatory to keep the world… at least my world… working just as it should.