Here's this week's heap of haikus:

 

Sunshine and whiskey
are a lot like love; they all
can make you go blind.

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That awkward moment
when you've ticked off Jonathan
Livingston Seagull.

 

(Photographs courtesy of Kristina Rebelo)

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I feel so alone.
I watch the tide come in and
think of yesterday.

 

(Photograph courtesy of Kristina Rebelo)

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Buckets on the beach
proudly watch, like mothers, their
contents join the sea.

 

(Photograph courtesy of Kristina Rebelo)

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The deepening blue
gently quiets golden waves.  
Nightfall approaches.

 

(Photograph courtesy of Kristina Rebelo)

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His first bicycle
had baseball cards in the spokes
of its wheels ... Vrooom!

 

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They are determined,
those yellow dandelions
pushing through sidewalks.

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tanka haiku:

 

You have long endured
both hardships and heartbreaks and
yet, you wish for more.
 
   For you think that happiness
   is paid for by misery.

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Scribbled reminders
that I can not decipher
always make me laugh.

 

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Do you still explore?
Search for meaning in all things?
Will you ever stop?
 

---

tanka haiku:
 
Small dogs are barking,
the TV in the bedroom
says the market's up.

   The sun has still not risen
   as we are saving daylight.

 

---

 

once upon a time-ku:

being adult meant
a clean, folded handkerchief
in your breast pocket.
 

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What, she asked, is Hope?
It's the thing that blossoms,
From seeds of despair.

 

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A freshly waxed floor,
an over-eager puppy ...
hilarity ensues.
 

 

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Even when alone,
in my heart and my mind, you
still reverberate.
 

---

 

As the night draws nigh
chickens roost and dogs bark at
approaching shadows.
 

 

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 Double haiku:
 
My walk tired me,
I rested under a tree,
my thoughts wandering.
 
Alas, wandering
thoughts seldom sleep. In fact. they,
often run ahead.
 

---

Stop ... Listen to me.
Nothing will last.   Got it?   Good.
Now go out and play.
 
 
 
---

 

You know how Life is -
Dull ... 'til something comes along
and lights up your heart.

 

 

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At the sky's edges,
mountaintops still pierce the clouds,
to peek at heaven.
 
 

---

 

After the downpour,
the neon lights of Broadway
shimmered in puddles.
 

---

 

Down a garden path,
which led to a wooden bench,
I found solitude.

---

 

He's got vertigo,
you can bet he's sure to go
fallin' down the stairs.
 

 

---
 

 

Bells in the distance ...
Yipee!  It's the ice cream man!
Wanna creamsicle?

 

---

A couple cuddles
outside of the Guggenheim,
then hails a taxi.

---

 

Being unemployed
both lightens your income and
darkens your outlook.
 

 
---

 

Reading comic books
and playing travel bingo
got them to Grandma's ...
 
 
---

 

tanka haiku:

Loathsome people too,
have that tiny piece of God,
which hides inside us.

   Life's a game of hide and seek
   that's played by God with Himself.

 

---

An oak balustrade
framed the staircase as it poured
into the lobby.
 

---

Summer afternoons,
lazy sunshine, as I stroll.
Dirt road daydreaming.

 

---

 

Coffee on the porch,
watching kids on bicycles
chased by barking dogs.
 

 

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Have you ever seen
a sunrise that does not hold
a promise of re-birth?
 

---

Will you be known by
the things that divert you or
those that focus you?

 

 

---

 

Shifting winds. Light rain.
He unzipped his coat. She closed
her red umbrella.
 
 
---

The intensity
of her stare made him wary.
(She's just near-sighted.)

---

Colored beach balls float
on incoming waves. Children
squeal and splash about.
 

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tanka haiku: 

Who have you steadied?

Whose heart have you opened? Whose

dreams have you unleashed?
 
   Are you here for nothing more
   than your own well-being? Feh.

 

---
 

The calla lilies
sported purple freckles, which
made me think of you.
 

---

 

The setting sun sinks
into the ocean, stealing
colors from the sky.

(Photograph courtesy of Kristina Rebelo)

 

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Her fragrance lingered
long after she'd disappeared
in the morning mist.

 

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Written in margins
between forgotten pages,
lie many a truth.

---

Hard Winter is near.
Approaching on tip-toe, it
hid in the cool breeze

 

 

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Another light from
my past extinguished.   I will
soon be on my own.

I got to work with Don Pardo a number of times when I was at NBC in the late 70's and early 80's, mostly when I worked in the advertising and promotion department of WNBC-TV.   He was a genuinely nice man, and what an amazing career; 70 years with NBC!  ( As a staff announcer, he read the first on-air bulletin of JFK's assassination.)

 

 

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On a more upbeat note, here is a standup comedy-related memory for you, DD:

The grandparent figures in my life were my mother's godparents; Edward J. Owens and his wife Agnes.   Edward J. Owens was a V.P. in Advertising from the 1920's until the late 1950's.  First in Chicago, then in New York City.  He had accounts like Goodyear and Buick.  He was friends with people like Sherman Billingsley and Toots Shor.  

One of the places "Uncle Ed and Aunt Agnes" lived in Manhattan was right off Fifth Avenue.  I remember as a child visiting them and their being very upset because this new building was going to obscure their view of Central Park.  That "new building" was the Guggenheim Museum.

Anyway ... Once, when my parents had to take my sister somewhere, Uncle Ed volunteered to take care of a three (or possibly 4) year old me for the afternoon.  According to my parents, after going to the circus, Uncle Ed took me to a 'saloon' and when my parents arrived, they found me up onstage with a comedian named Joe E. Lewis, who was using me like a ventriloquist dummy ... and was getting big laughs because I wouldn't stop talking.

Now, I have absolutely no memory of this other than my memory of my parent's telling me about it and my Uncle Ed laughing about it so many times over the years.  

Anyway ... I hope that made you smile, DD. 

I'm not sure why, but it seems my life has been rich with odd moments such as that.

Below: My "Uncle Ed" (left) with the owner of the Stork Club, Sherman Billingsley.

 

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