About the Lync Server PowerShell Haikus

Now that Microsoft Lync Server 2010 has been officially launched, the one question everyone is asking is this: why isn't anyone writing haikus about Lync Server and, in particular, about Lync Server's implementation of Windows PowerShell? To be perfectly honest, we have no idea. But we intend to do something about that.

As you might recall from junior high English, haikus are a traditional form of Japanese poetry. In Japanese, haikus consist of three lines containing 5, 7, and 5 moras or "sound units." In English, haikus typically consist of three lines containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

Note. In case you're wondering, no, moras and syllables are not the same. Unless, of course, they are; no one seems to be able to agree on what a mora actually is. Not that people haven’t tried to define the term; for example, one definition we uncovered reads like this:

"Something of which a long syllable consists of two and a short syllable consists of one."

That made no sense to us whatsoever, which, in turn, made us wonder if we've been writing in moras all along, without even realizing it. To coin a phrase, maybe we were poets and didn’t even know that we were writing poetry!

At any rate, English language haikus tend to look something like this one, written by the American novelist Richard Wright:

Whitecaps on the bay:

A broken signboard banging

In the April wind.

No doubt that when you read that your first thought was, "Man, the haiku is the perfect way to explain how Lync Server's implementation of Windows PowerShell really works!" Needless to say, that was our first thought, too.

Note. Well, OK, if you want to get picky about it, our first thought was actually, "Man, the limerick is the perfect way to explain how Lync Server's implementation of Windows PowerShell really works!" Because of that, was initially tried writing Lync Server PowerShell limericks. In fact, we got off to what we thought was a pretty good start:

There once was a girl from the Isle of Man

Who tried to use New-CsDialPlan.

Unfortunately, though, we couldn't figure out where to go from there, so we gave up and switched to haikus instead. And sure, call us quitters if you want. But you try using Remove-CsBandwidthPolicyServiceConfiguration in a limerick. It's not as easy as it sounds.

At any rate (and without having consumed a single drop of alcohol) we decided to embark on a new project: the Lync Server PowerShell Haiku of the Day. Every day (except for weekends, holidays, and days when we just never seem to get around to it) we'll publish a new haiku about Lync Server PowerShell; we'll also throw in some expert commentary that explains what the haiku (and the PowerShell noun) actually mean. Our goal is to continue this project until we have written a haiku for each Lync Server PowerShell noun, or until our managers discover that we're spending our time writing Lync Server haikus. Whichever comes first.

Today's Haiku

Haikus Archive