Chris Smith’s blog

In honor of Pat Robertson, lunatic televangelist and onetime presidential candidate, and his recent explication of the source of Haiti’s troubles (Haiti “swore a pact to the devil … True story!), I dug up an old blog piece from my Mojo days. Maybe you only know Robertson as a dotty, albeit hateful, TV personality. Turns out he also has a history as a would-be conflict-diamond magnate, and some of his best buddies are now on trial for war crimes in the Hague.

I don’t know about you, but heavy metal always gets me thinking. Things like, “Damn, this is some deep stuff–I had never considered the possibility of  a sword coming up through the toilet. But now I’m scared.”

There’s a problem, though. In our harried, time-challenged world, who’s got the time to really soak up the nuances of each and every song on their iPod? If only it were possible, I thought, to condense these profundities into a simpler form, giving them a platform at once more concise and, perhaps, a shade more delicate.

Then it dawned on me: the haiku, the short poetic form that originated in Japan and frequently muses on the changing seasons, might just be the ticket. With that in mind, I bring you Heavy Metal Haikus, a blog cataloging some of my favorite lyrics along with their pithier, haiku-ish offspring. There are a few posts up already; I’ll add more as the mood strikes, so please check back often.