Currently, during my last semester at Pitt, I’m taking a course called Integrating Writing and Design. For our most recent project, we had to compose a multi-paged document. I integrated my favorite city and poem form — Pittsburgh and haiku.
17-Syllable Odes to What Makes Pittsburgh Great
The Mullet
Business in the front.
Party in the back. Your hair
is really ugly.
Steel Mills
Toxins in the Mon,
smog in the sky, food on our
plate. You sustain us.
Heinz Ketchup
Hamburgers, french fries,
and eggs all go well with you.
There’s no substitute.
Pop
Cold, carbonated
beverage. Them fools tryin’
to call you soda.
Sports Teams
Penguins own the ice.
Steelers: hard-hitting, smash-mouth.
Pirates? Nice ballpark.
Parking Chair
Faithful white deck chair,
you endure the elements,
preserving my spot.
Heel
You ain’t on my foot.
You’re steep and my car slides down
you in the winter.
Potholes
Roads, you resemble
the surface of the Moon. Please
don’t swallow my car.
Pittsburgh
Most Livable, the
City of Champions. Let’s face
it — you’re the best.
For Your Virtual Coffee Table
Download the book:

Note: the first and last page are the cover and the back, and the middle (wider) pages are meant to be the folded inner pages of the book.
It’s a coffee table book, about coffee tables …
To be pedantic, if you don’t pass your Integrating Writing and Design course you will not be a Pitt graduate, will ya?
said Duncan at 7:52 pm on Thursday, June 10
Duncan, this is true, but I will get an A in Integrating Writing and Design. I chose to use the word graduate because it has 3 syllables, and student only has 2 (and wouldn’t have fit the haiku form).
said Nathaniel Buck at 10:21 am on Friday, June 11