Godawful Early Haiku
I recall that one of my first attempts at haiku, in 1976 or so, was about thunder applauding the lightning’s performance. That’s not only an overwrought conceit, but disastrous for haiku, although I hadn’t yet learned why. As a reminder to myself that I took my turn suffering under deep and superficial misunderstandings of haiku, here—if you can stomach them—are 46 of my early haiku (ahem, pseudo-haiku), all written by 1984, and all gloriously titled and clueless. See if you can enjoy any of them, or at least enjoy seeing my younger self in them. At least the one about the eggshell still amuses me. See also “Godawful Early Haiku, Part Deux.” +
9 O’Clock
Evening bells tolling
Ringing, telling and singing
The evening’s passing.
The Muskrat
Nose-up fur-button
Ripple-tail splitting water
Father paddling home.
The Squirrel
Half tail, half not
A bundle of leaping fur
Scampering away.
Thundercloud
The deepening sky
Yawns with his cavernous mouth—
Tongue of light leaps out.
Haiku for Children
Bullets splatter blood
But video life’s a smile,
A test tube no more.
Eggshell
I found an egg shell—
The egg was still inside it.
I made it come out.
Frankly, My Dear
I know who’s to blame
(. . . the Butler didn’t do it)
Your sins are Scarlett.
Pining
See the lonely rose
Bobbing for the butterfly
Leaving her weeping.
Pygmalion
Memory’s statue—
My overwhelming passion
She loves not I yet.
Updraft
I am Icarus
Flying too close to Venus . . .
Open heart descends.
Dropped
I need to be alone
The young man said aloud
To no one at all.
Hitters
Everything to come
Touches home and then is flown
Can you stay awhile?
In the previous poem, I had wanted to write an acrostic for “etc.” (don’t ask me why). This also influenced the word choices for the first line (also acrostic). The next three poems achieve the same stupendous acrostic feat, and their three titles together were intended to say “Opportunity Well Spent.” Wasn’t I clever?
Opportunity
Early in the day
The dawn breaks out in shinelight
Crowning her maker.
Well
Every zenith sun
Takes our lives in trust till death
Counting till it’s done.
Spent
Evening shadows fade—
Tonight the light has fallen
Calling rest to mind.
After the Rain
Shadows leave the sand
The sun breaks through the rainfall
Pitching mellow shade.
Sappy Birthday
Give me your presence
Or be a birthday friend, and
Give me your presents.
Auschwitz
The pall overwhelms
Bodies in a plethora
Of absentee sound.
Captivator
She is such a smile
All smiles and the only smile
To capture a slave.
The Sting
Verbs in your sonnets
Are like bees in your bonnets
For the sting disturbs.
Hi, Koo
Her face is showing
Stark and dark reality—
This one is for Koo.
The preceding poem was written about Koo Stark on 24 January 1984, while I was living in England.
Nuptial Creature
Weddings are strange beasts;
They prowl near and threaten, but
Never feed on me.
Fasting
Another day passed
and I will still be fasting
Thinned from daily work.
Bonsai Waterfall
Rush wooden water
Cascade round me naughtily—
Tree-root in the stream.
The Apple
The crisp and bitten
Apple of Adam and Eve
Fathers half a worm.
The Dawn
This a just goodbye
In case I should die tonight—
Morning’s sun will shine.
Albatross
I, straight and single
Scraping the heavenly clouds
Fly like a seagull.
Suburban Soliloquy
Just painted petals
Pollute my plastic townhouse
Clinical and pure.
Widerspruch
She spoke as a child
“I wish my life be sinneful.”
But she spoke German.
The German word for “meaningful” is “sinne.” This poem quotes a German friend’s statement verbatim.
This Little Piggy
A good Friend of mine
Said to me at the Market
Caveat emptor.
Wind
Silently sailing
Till crashing into the ground
The gusting is life.
Amiens
Eleven o’clock
I hear the cathedral bells
Peeling to battle.
My Hand
Smooth symmetrical
The outlying dying veins
Surrounding my leaf.
The Passing of Love and Time
The years that wedge in
Bring no greater distance, when
We were never close.
What You’ve Been Up To
Cry and the earth cries
Whimper and the earth whimpers
Smile and the earth knows . . .
Wish of an Aspen
Snowbird, nest with me
About me, flitter-singing
Concealing my fall.
I, Metaphor
She vies herself “ten”
Virgin, who I would rate high
But I, met a four.
Bedroom
Slowly sliding shut
My corrugated curtains
Block out evenings dark.
Dust in the Moonbeam
I awaken slow
Discovering a tickle
On my moonbeam face.
She (Epithalameum)
lingering hissing
what a subtle word she is
all containing he.
Spiritual Halitosis
Bible-thumping gush—
Spiritual halitosis
Wilting weary ears.
Clouds
My migraine pulsates
Swelling and shrinking the clouds
There ought to be rain.
Pharasite
A nuisance to count
You gave your ducats clanging
—Suitedly pious.
Homiletic Wheels
The longer you spoke
Then the larger the tire
Became for the bike.
Unquenched
Chalice of mine heart
Sputter-thirst I, bashlessly
As of yet unquenched.
Tetherball
Rebounding, swinging
Sphere of a human nature
Encircling the sun.
