Celebrity Death Haiku

Howard Zinn

1922 – 2010

Debunked the Pilgrims

Made us ask whose history

Is it, anyway?

— babatjie

William Safire

1929 – 2009

A man of the Times

Nixed negative nattering

Yet nabobs loved him

— Russell 1000

* * *

Lexicographic 

Irregulars bow their heads

The Squad Squad bows twice

— Meanie the Blue

* * *

William Safire

Now nattering nabob of

Decomposition

 — Jeff Tiedrich

Army Archerd

1922 – 2009

Bev Hills, Nate 'n' Al's:

Army dug pastrami, dished

Lots of baloney

 — St. Blaise

* * *

For better and worse

He squinted past glamour and

Told us what was there

— Russell 1000

Dominick Dunne

1925 – 2009

Lived in the shadow

Of John Gregory, then died

In Ted Kennedy's

— Lairbo

* * * 

As Farrah's death was 

To Jacko's, Dominick Dunne's

Was to Kennedy's

— Phil Valens

Don Hewitt

1931 – 2009

It's starting to look

Like Andy Rooney's gonna

Outlive all of them

— Lairbo

Robert Novak

1931 – 2009

Robert Novak's death

Makes me ask; when Satan dies,

Where does he end up?

— Jeff Tiedrich

Walter Cronkite

1916 – 2009

Uncle Walter's gone

The way it is is no more

Rather he'd stayed on

— Lairbo

* * *

Trusted the viewers

To have clues and half a brain

Won't see that again

 — Russell 1000

Marilyn French

1929 – 2009

When she wrote, men fled

And sisters read. Ms. French made

Room for women's lib

— PK

Paul Harvey

1918 — 2009

Good day, Paul Harvey

That's the end of that story

Longest pause of all

— Lairbo

John Updike

1932 – 2009

Can anyone name

Three non-Rabbit books he wrote?

I didn't think so 

—Lairbo

* * *

Of all his Rabbit books

Watership Down is my fave...

What? That wasn't him?

—Russell 1000

Mark "Deep Throat" Felt

1913 – 2008

Did a lot of good

For mostly the wrong reasons

Then kept his mouth shut

— Lairbo

* * * 

Mark Felt was Deep Throat

Woodward, Bernstein await call

On God's cover-ups

— Adrian M. Johnson

Studs Terkel

1912 – 2008

Helluva talker

Even better listener

Luckily for us

— Lairbo

 

William F. Buckley

1925 – 2008

Now, from way up there
We look even tinier
Than he thought we were

— Lairbo

* * *

Not enough lines here
To quote the late Bill Buckley
Too many big words

— Jakalu

Tom Snyder

1936 – 2007

In Tomorrow-land
Swirling smoke fills the air while
Colortinis chill

— Lairbo

Johnny Hart

1931 – 2007

Cartoon cavemen weep
Their creator is kaput
Stare at moon in grief

— Lairbo

Orianna Fallaci

1929 – 2006

Fallaci's dead; now
Christine Amanpour has the
Longest name in news

— Lairbo

Charles M. Schultz

1922 – 2000

Cloaked big, sad heart in

World-weary kids' wisdom, wit

And warm puppies

— Lairbo

Al Capp

1909 – 1979

Dogpatch? That's halfway

Between Doonesbury and the

Okefenokee

— Lairbo

Karen Silkwood

1946 – 1974

Tragic death, yes, but 

She got played by Meryl Streep

Who won an Oscar!

— Russell 1000

Hedda Hopper

1885 – 1966

What would she make of

Perez Hilton, TMZ,

E! and all the rest?

— Lairbo

Emily Post

1872 – 1960

Funeral haiku

Five decades after the fact?

How wretchedly gauche!

— Lairbo

Don Marquis

1878 – 1937

Gave voice to a roach

Who typed poetry and a 

Cat, Mehitabel

— Lairbo