MrSmith1's picture

    A Laborious Friday Afternoon at the Haikulodeon

     

    Here's this week's heap of haikus:

     


    Labor Day double haiku:


    Forty hour work weeks,
    Safety and child labor laws ...
    a minimum wage.

    Unions, walk outs, strikes,
    picket lines, arbitration ...
    Which side are you on?


    ---

     

    A suicidal
    watermelon's a sure sign
    that Summer's over.

     

    (Actual un-retouched photo of W. 108th St. sidewalk - taken by me in Sept. of 2013)


    ---


    (So, I said to myself, "It's almost September, maybe you could write a haiku with 'falling leaves' in it" ... this is what came out first:)
     


    Since falling leaves me
    vulnerable, it is not,
    my friend, an option.

     


    then I got serious and wrote this ...

     

    Through an iron fence,
    I watch Autumn leaves fall on
    empty park benches.

     


    ---

     


    Soothing melodies
    ran through his head, thanks in part
    to his new iPod.


    ---

     


    There, on the sidewalk,
    I spied a crumpled dollar
    which looked a bit spent.

     


    ---

     

    Coming down the steps,
    she held onto the handrail
    with a fierce-some grip.


    ---

     


    On grey, rainy days,
    she first sulked at the window,
    then, wished for blue skies.

     


    ---

     


    They sway with the breeze,
    which is why her little dog,
    barks at sunflowers.

     


    ---

     


    It's not the way I
    don't do things that matters, it's
    the way I forget.

     

     


    ---


     

    double haiku:

     

    It's three fifteen, and
    wakened from a sad dream, I
    try to clear my head.

    Thoughts of you linger
    and entwine with my day's chores.
    You still haunt my heart.

     


    ---

     

     

     

    Torches throw shadows
    on dreary castle walls ... The
    mob wants Frankenstein!

     


    ---

     


     double haiku:

    When I was young, I
    looked in strangers' faces to
    find the familiar.

    Now that I am old,
    I look in strangers' faces
    to find the unique.
     
     
    ---
     


     
     In Life, two choices;
    remain bewildered, or seek
    clarification.
     

     

    ---
     

     

     
     
    The dark before dawn;
    lonely hearts beat quicker in
    anticipation.
     
     
     
    ---

     

     


    The one thing we do
    that's as powerful as Love
    is ... that we Forgive.

     

     
     
    ---

     

     


    To illuminate
    is better than to merely shine.
    Teach thinking, not thoughts.

    (from St. Thomas Aquinas ... more or less.)
     


    ---

     

    You can malinger
    or even procrastinate ...
    long as things gets done.

     


    ---

     

     

    Ah, consistency ...
    It's not just over-rated,
    it's the same old sh*t.
     
     
    ---


     

    tanka haiku:


    She wore pink spandex
    on her summer vacation ...
    which caused a riot.
     
    Cops came. She was arrested,
    and did a stretch in prison.

     

    ---


    double haiku:


     
    Oh, sweet saxophone,
    play for me a most gentle
    lullaby for Bird.
     
    I passed Bird's house on
    Avenue B today and
    muttered, "Too soon gone."

     
    (Happy would-have-been 94rd birthday to Charlie Parker.)
     
     
    ---

     

    A stone partition
    never stops my neighbor’s dog
    from barking at me.


    ---

     

     


    Idyllic dreamscapes;
    lush, green mountains still surround
    the Hudson River

     

    (Painting by John Frederick Kensett (American, 1816–1872) | Hudson River Scene )

    ---

     


    Weary troubadour,
    guitar slung across his back,
    thumb out to hitch-hike.
     
     
    ---


    A moonlit whisper
    two lovers in silhouette
    nightly affection.

     

    ---


    They carved the bough to
    make a prow, which even now
    still floats somehow ... Wow.


    ---

     

    Moody clouds roiled through
    the dark sky o'er the harbor ...
    tethered sailboats bobbed.

     
     

     
    (Photograph courtesy Kristina Rebelo)

     

     

    ---

     

     

    Homes embedded near
    Maine's coastal villages, where
    Man and Nature merge.

     

    George Bellows (1882–1925) | The Red Vine, Matinicus Island, Maine | 1916

    ---

     

     

    Though Summer's waning
    Autumn's not yet in the air.
    Seasonal drifting.

     

     

    ---

     

     

    Set wide the window
    and let me drink in the day
    for I'm feeling parched.

     

    (from an Edith Wharton quote ... more or less.)  

     

     

    ---

     

     

    I don't move stiffly ...
    The rest of the world's too loose.
    See? It's all context.
     

     

     
    ---
     
     


    It's been said that in
    the wasted pursuits of youth
    live our old-age dreams.
     
     
    ---

     

     


    Driving through small towns,
    my windshield frames images
    I cannot forget.

     

     

     

    ---

     

     

     

    Formerly treasured
    knick-knacks in the garbage can?
    The whim of 'the wife.'
     

     

     

    ---

     


    Any given day,
    swirling leaves will seem confused
    by the winds of change.

     

     


     

    * * *

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Comments

    P.S.  Just for fun ...  As Summer begins to fade, I thought of this song, "Summer, Summer" from the musical of "Two Gentlemen of Verona."   Here is a clip from the 1973 London production   

     

    If you're not familiar with this musical,  it is a silly, funny and thoroughly enjoyable romp with music by Galt McDermott, the composer of Hair and lyrics by John Guare (who wrote the play, House of Blue Leaves)  It was a controversial winner of the Best Musical Tony Award in 1972, beating out the brilliant Stephen Sondheim musical, "Follies."     Two Gentlemen of Verona  is full of Shakespearean nonsense combined with hippie giddiness and is guaranteed to make you smile.

     


    I recognize you.

    My eyes do not see, and yet ...

    You are everywhere.

    I envelope you.

    My blindness assuaged because ...

    You recognize me.


     

    Nice, barefooted!

     

    Blinded by love, I'd

    know you though my eyes are closed.

    Hearts like radios.

     

    ---

     

     

     

     

     


    Turn the volume up!

    For sightless hearts are dancing

    on the FM dial.


    Ha!  Good one!

     

    Sightless hearts may waltz

    but they prefer the foxtrot;

    it has a good beat.

     


     


    My juvenile mind

    tortures the tendons with dance:

    Geriatric Rock.


    Wonderful, moat!!

     

    My juvenile mind

    pictures my body doing

    what age now forbids.

     

    ---


    It's mortality

    That is what's bothering me

    Mortality, see?

     

    I'm going to die

    At least, sooner or later.

    Sooner or later

     

    What does sooner mean?

    What does later really mean?

    Later becomes now

     

    Later becomes now

    Eventually it comes

    Later becomes now

     

     

    Why is it so hard

    To accept the fate of all?

    And I am just one?

     

    Seven billion

    And so I am just the one

    This is selfishness

     

    Enough of that stuff

    We had a cool summer

    No need for coolers

     

    Devises that cool

    were needed elsewhere

    Far from this northland

     

    I listen to the loons

    I listen to the wind and trains

    Calming they all are

    THE END

    Great set Mr. Smith

     


    Wonderful haiku octet plus one, DD!  (There is a word for a set of nine, but I forget what it is ... a nontet?   Anyway, nicely done.

     

    There is a reason

    we're not told the day we'll die;

    we would never live.

    -

    Mortality is

    simply a concept applied

    to other people.

    -

    Of course we'll all die,

    that is the nature of this

    plane of existence.

    -

    So ... the thing to do

    is to stop obsessing on

    time ... focus on space.

     

    -

    Our ending here is

    just our moving to the next

    plane of existence.

     

    ***

     

    P.S.  DD, did you see the anecdote I wrote for you last week about my first standup performance?  I hope it made you smile.

     

     

     

     

     


    :Yeah it made me smile!

    I obviously missed last week.

    I have missed a lot the last few months.

    My God, he was married to Beaver's mama. hahahahha

    You  live history not just through it!

    That is why I attempt to honor you and Ducky.

    And then you go ahead and write something and direct it towards ME?

    You have so many memories Mr. Smith, and I am just an idiot.

    hahahahah

    Thank you for this.

    I am speechless, which is hard  to do.

    Because I am never speechless.

     


    Remember this;. The

    world's full of idiots ... It's

    made for and by them us.

    ;-)

     

     

     

     

    .
     


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