For the Wall Street Journal Europe I've written an analysis of the election race (can we call it that?) for the post of president of the European council. The man leading the way according to bookmakers is Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy of Belgium. It has been widely reported that in his spare time he likes to write poetry, or compose haikus. Herman has been derided widely for this but I think it's unfair. They're rather good.

Here are the two best in case you missed them:

Hair:
Hair blows in the wind
After years there is still wind
Sadly no more hair

A Fly:
A fly zooms, buzzes,
Spins and is lost in the room,
he does no one any harm

But even better, he has spawned imitators. Last week the staff of the Independent decided to have a go at composing haikus in the Belgian's leader's honor, creating a veritable 'Stars on 45′ style mega-mix of Van Rompuy sounding haikus. Some are even better than the originals. Some are not.

Vote Haiku Herman.
Within Brussels has sprouted
Bitter taste for Blair.

He writes poems!
That should cheer dull hours
Of talks on iron ore tariffs.

Vintage wine at lunch:
Expensed. At least it's
not American, you claim.

Europe pluribus unum,
But don't tell Ukip:
They just want unum.

Update: Latest Herman-style Haikus

The mania for Herman Van Rompuy style compositions is catching. As we have seen, the Independent led the way last week with members of its staff creating their own Herman haikus. But now the Wall Street Journal is on their tail. Stephen Fidler, bureau chief in Brussels, passes on the first of two haikus from members of the WSJ team.

One call to Europe:
Vaira Vike-Freiberga
On the other end!

Kissinger Calling
Van Rompuy Answers the phone
Henry: "Wrong number"