Haiku 2023–350
#!/usr/bin/env python
from time import sleep
def haiku350(what):
print(“I’m thankful for “+what)
thankfulList = [‘Jess’, ‘my daughters’, ‘love’]
alive = “yes”
while alive == “yes”:
for item in thankfulList:
haiku350(item)
sleep(86400)
— —
Is this a haiku? It all depends on how you interpret it.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, this is a program written in Python 3. If you cut and paste this into a Python shell, you will get the following simple, but very heartfelt haiku:
I’m thankful for Jess
I’m thankful for daughters
I’m thankful for love
Any programmer that reads this will see there’s a bit more going on than just the words. The two lines beginning with ‘def’ show that the function of Haiku350 is printing what I’m thankful for. Writing it as a function with an input of ‘what’ suggests that I’m going to be declaring my thanks about multiple things. Right on queue, ‘thankfulList’ is next line in the program which, as the name of the variable suggests, is a list of things I’m thankful for. While I’m thankful for scores of additional things, my wife, my daughters, and love are the top three.
The next two lines of the program are a bit harder to discern for the layperson. What I’ve done here is set up an infinite loop for the rest of the program. It declares that I’m alive, then goes on to ask if I’m alive before giving some instructions on what to do if I am, in fact, alive. The instructions tell the program to print out that I’m thankful for everything on thankfulList, a list that’s curated to result in a haiku.
The last line of the program is interesting. Without this line, the lines of the haiku would print over and over and over again without stopping. While I’m thankful for all the items on the list all the time, I just want the reminder that I should be thankful to print once a day, so the program goes to sleep for 24 hours and does it again.
So, the question remains is this haiku? Jess and I had a spirited discussion regarding that question which we approached from different angles. The conclusion we came to is that what I’ve presented is a work of art, a work of art that generates a haiku. I welcome any thoughts to the contrary.
