My true short story

My name is Travis J. Morgan. I was born 28 years ago in the state of Illinois. For the first 18 years of my existence, I went to public schools, grew up in a broken family, and developed my character and personality based from my life experiences and environmental influences. In 1996, at the age of 18, my life took a drastic change of direction. I did not know it at the time, but this is when my voyage into cyberspace began. For the following ten years of my life, I have been entrenched in computers, networks, servers, programs, codes, websites, internet, operating systems, computer languages, databases, computer to user relationships, logical thinking, troubleshooting, design, and so forth.

My mind has become engulfed in cyber culture and information technology, losing most social contact, I am now living in a electronic society. Some would call me a cyberpunk or computer hacker (Not to be confused with computer cracker). I live off of caffeine based substances, and lack in sleep. When I do sleep, I’m stuck in the REM stage and have these dreams in code that scramble my thoughts. The sounds of, The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, and Crystal Method echo my already techno lifestyle. My eyes are glued to the glaring monitor screen, and my fingers glide across the keyboard endless hours, days, weeks, years. It seems like I can always find an excuse to do something with a computer. I’m in too deep, I may be addicted, I may be lost in cyberspace.

It is almost time
The work day is at an end
- I take off my mask

The snowflakes falls perfectly in place…

I have read a lot of Haiku lately that do not even look like haiku anymore. I guess these “modern” haiku do not have to follow any rules or best practices other then the 5-7-5 syllable format. A Haiku is a “formatted” Japanese form or poetry. I feel that taking away that formatting, no longer makes it a haiku.

These are the rules and best practices that I follow when writing my Haiku,

Obviously the 5-7-5 syllable format.
I feel a haiku should be about nature and contain “season” words.
I feel a haiku should not contain metaphors or similes -
As the play on words takes away from the haiku simplicity.
I feel a haiku should describe a single moment
I feel a haiku should use words like a, the, as, of, as little as possible.
I feel each line of a haiku should be relative to the other lines on some way.
I feel the last line of a haiku should be a “striking” or an “enlightening” line.
The three lines of a haiku should not rhyme.

These are the best practices I try to conform to when writing my haiku. If you have any comments or questions about this, feel free to comment.

Monitor glaring
My fingers glide through the keys
- Login successful

Network light glowing green
The world at my fingertips
my mind bounds me now

Cocoon breaks open,
sky-blue painted wings emerge
- metamorphosis

Below snow capped peaks
an emerald forest blooms
- clear lake reflections

Rustling sounds draw near
The tall thick grass moves apart
Whiskers of a fox

These electric dreams,
confusing and thick
scrambling my thoughts,
a magnetic lightning stick

Frying, sizzling, power shock
What is this random blistering code
frying my brains circuitry
zap! - Human debugging mode

shocking my body,
mind spinning underground
wired to this terminal
listen, that static sound.

Nearly plugged in,
No! Keep that socket away
The sparks are getting closer
I don’t want to die this way.

Terminal electric dreams
even strike me in the wake.
Disorderly charged digits,
Another Electrophobic quake

Power spikes impale me,
An energy flux leaks
through my heart and veins.
Gasping, my final fatal shrieks

Stop! Help me!
Wake up! Ascend!
If this nightmare continues
I will never sleep again.

My eyes open,
I realize,

Relief!

It was just that dream,
so real,

my electric night thief.