Red Cup Rebellion gets in the poetry game

Bringing a taste of the finer things into your life.

By Gray Hardison May 20, 2021, 1:00pm EDT

Last week, those of us living that Very Online Life™ were surprised to find out a new dash of culture and sophistication would be coming to online retailers and the select of the select bookstores in certain geographical pockets of Mississippi.

Thanks to the alertness of Mr. Bunkie Perkins, a Red Cup contributor and online mogul, we learned that Ole Miss’ senior compliance blogger has written a collection of poems for everyone’s reading pleasure. This is of interest to us because it now means there’s an Ole Miss blogger writing about more than just players, games, and crooting,

Given that we currently offer no poetry #content (other than all-caps, no punctuation comments), we can’t afford to let that gap widen. The last thing we want is to become the lone group of Ole Miss bloggers that is not pushing the boundaries of online literature.

However, if we’re going to do this, we must begin with simple steps before working our way up to the inevitable comparisons with Shakespeare, Kipling, and Frost. That’s why this first trip into the world of poetry will stick to the haiku format.

If you can access the part of your brain that may still remember English class, you’ll recall that a haiku has a 5-7-5 structure. That means the first line has five syllables, the second line seven syllables, and the last line goes back to five.

Haikus tend to focus on simplicity and the beauty of the world around us, while using short words, making them ideal for this Ole Miss-themed project. Also, they’re different from traditional poems you might have been forced to memorize as a youth and recite in front of the entire class, which may help us stand out.

With that in mind, let the culture and sophistication begin.