Spam is more than just a canned delicacy. It's the luncheon meat that launched 12,000 poems -- and counting. That's how many verses John Cho has collected in his online archive, which accepts contributions from Spam fans around the world. Last year, Cho, '85, MS '86, sliced off 162 of the best porcine poems for Spam-Ku: Tranquil Reflection on Luncheon Loaf (HarperPerennial, 1998; $7.95).
Though the website includes sonnets and limericks, the book is reserved for haiku. The poems, which have three lines and exactly 17 syllables, cover subjects from Americana and physics to love and dreams. Cho himself contributed 33 verses, including No. 32:
Kitchen windowsill.
Lit by passing headlights, Spam
casts a long shadow.
The New York Times called the collection "clever, funny . . . profound." Cho, an atmospheric researcher at M.I.T., says Spam-ku works because of the "weird juxtaposition of ancient high art and modern low pop culture." Or, as the poet says:
Descartes on pig parts
Says: I'm pink, therefore I'm Spam
Deep philosophy.
