The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    A Pre-Xmas-y Friday Afternoon at the Haikulodeon

    By MrSmith1 on Fri, 11/30/2012 - 2:04pm |

     

     
     
    Here's this week's heap of haikus:
     
    It took twenty years
    to go from "Casablanca"
     
    ---------------------------------
     
     
    A tiny sparrow
    is chased by a feisty pup
    pulling a young girl.
     
    --------------------------------
     
     
    Reading comic books
    and playing travel bingo
    got them to Grandma's.
     
     
    ---------------------------------------
     
     
     Brightly colored flags
    flapped happily in the breeze;
    quite a stirring sight
     
     
    --------------------------------------
     
     
     Martini’s shaken
    and not stirred, makes olives bounce
    and Bond, James Bond, drunk.
     
     
    -------------------------------------
     
     
     
    When you are swimming,
    you don’t think about drowning.
    So it is with Life.
     
     
    ---------------------------------------
     
     
     Twilight emerges,
    putting this long day to bed,
    releasing our dreams.
     
     
    ----------------------------------------
     
     
     
    Juggling toothpicks
    is not as hard as it looks …
    (Nothing ever is.)
     
     
    ---------------------------------------
     
     
     
    Comfy and cozy
    and wrapped in a patchwork quilt,
    she sipped some hot soup.
     
     
    -------------------------------------------------
     
     
    Depressed optimists
    still live for tomorrow ... 'cuz
    today really sucks.
     
     
    ------------------------------------------------
     
     
     Courtesan and muse,
    she was unemotional ...
    though she was tickled.
     
     
    ------------------------------------------------
     
     
     
     Slouched in a corner,
    of a dingy juke joint, a
    young man learns the blues.
     
     
     
    ----------------------------------------------
     
     
     Whatever ends will
    begin again; our journey
    is but a circle.
     
     
    --------------------------------------------------
     
     
     
    Words had no effect,
    so, reluctantly, he tried
    throwing sticks and stones.
     
     
    ---------------------------------------------------
     
     
    Skill's a garden that
    grows when we tend to it and
    withers from neglect.
     
     
    ---------------------------------------------------
     
     
     A chronic disease
    is to happiness as a
    stork is to a plum.
     
     
    -----------------------------------
     
     
    It does not add up
    that the way to multiply
    is through division.
     
    --------------------------------------
     
     
    Those closest to us
    can take comfort in knowing,
    we recreate them.
     
    -----------------------------------------
     
     
    In a garden lost,
    overgrown with grass and weeds,
    peonies still bloomed.
     
     
    -------------------------------------------
     
    Off in a corner
    sits a quiet little girl
    who dreams of rainbows.
     
    --------------------------------
     
     
    Lonely blue highways,
    asphalts to infinity,
    still, I travel on.
     
     
    ---------------------------------
     
     
    Scars are reminders
    that life can be risky, but
    we can, and will, heal.
     
    -------------------------------------------
     
     
     
    Bonus Xmas-y stuff from www.Spondyville.com :

    "My friend, being healthy is no guarantee of a better life. In fact, a life without pain and suffering, may seem like an easier, more desirable choice, but know this; nothing great and lasting was ever built on comfort and complacency. It is through struggle and effort and being willing to adapt to change and endure in the struggle, that all great lives are lived and great things accomplished. Be who you are, and you will do what you do and that will have an impact." - An excerpt from the Spondyville holiday classic, "It's a Wonderful Snowspondy" -

    http://www.spondyville.com/Page76Wonderful.html
     
     
    -----------------------------------
     
     
    "T'was the morning of the day before the night before Christmas, and all through the town, Spondys were getting ready for the holidays.  There was so much to be done, (and for most Spondys so much figuring out of alternate ways of getting those things done ... to be done.)
     
    As the sun slowly rose above the horizon, (if you listened very closely), you could hear the sound of hundreds of sock devices being used to assist the townsfolk in putting on their hosiery, and hundreds of extra long shoe horns being used to wedge slightly swollen spondy feet into their pre-tied spondy shoes ..." - An excerpt from the Spondyville holiday classic, "Christmas in Spondyville."
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    Comments

    I was thinking about generational 'shifts' and Casablanca and The Beatles; I think about this subject a lot.

    When I was a kid I was told that Sinatra would last forever.

    Hell, the Stones have lasted longer than Frank!

    Frank and his crew surreptitiously 'stole' the Black musical culture; albeit with more aplomb than some white pop singers including Pat Boone of the 50's.

    The Stones and the Beatles and so many rock groups of the 60's worshipped the Black musical culture and there was little surreptitious about how they included that music in their deliveries.

    We can certainly look back and laugh at Boone.

    But who the hell would look back and laugh at the Beatles?

    My son when he was twelve turned to me in the car and said he was sad because no one of his generation would ever achieve the rank and wonder of my generations music! ha

    I guess I was better at indoctrination than I had thought. haha

    I am just wandering here. hahahah

    Great poetry once again.

     


    by Richard Day on Fri, 11/30/2012 - 3:50pm

     

    It's hard to believe that Casablance premiered 70 years ago this week and that on the same day 50 years ago, the Beatles recorded, "Please, Please Me", one of their first hits.   The cultural distance between the two seems much wider to me.  Then again, it was only 19 years between landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and JFK's assassination.  

     

    Time flies, yes it does,
    'here and now' will soon be 'was'...
    and that's a fact, Jack.

    re-write:  

    Time flies, yes it does,

    'here and now' will soon be 'was'...

    But why? Just because ...

     


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 12/01/2012 - 11:41am

    Not anything to do with haikus, but,

    "When Charles Met Sally"

    Hinting.
    Could be a salty conversation in a workplace lunchroom, peppered with innuendo.cheeky ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.
    And Charles was so lonesome talking to ketchup and all.frown ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.
    And Sally had to work on Christmas Eve....angry ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.
    And Charles didn't want to go home and talk to food.....crying ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.
    And the lunchroom fridge has such an odd selection of condiments. I mean, what's a little soy sauce between co-workers?wink ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.
    And, well, you know....
    it could happen.
    But, I'm just hinting. If you have the time and the inclination.
    I'm just hinting.
    And hoping.smiley ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.


    by wabby on Fri, 11/30/2012 - 8:31pm

    Hmmm ... a prequel?  Or perhaps ... Two new neighbors share a love of Chutney?

    I like it!   I'll start work on it right away ... well, almost right away. 

    P.S.  I was waiting to re-post the original "holiday classic", (FYI, everything written about Xmas is automatically a "holiday classic" after the first year it's written), until December, but it's December now isn't it? smiley

     

     


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 12/01/2012 - 12:30am

    Oh, I should have emailed you privately instead of blurting it out in comments. Now I've spoiled the Christmas Classic! My sincere apologies. But, I'm glad you like the idea and am looking forward to the unfolding saga. smiley ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.


    by wabby on Sun, 12/02/2012 - 7:35am

    Like holiday fruitcakes, Christmas Classics never spoil, they mature.   smiley


    by MrSmith1 on Sun, 12/02/2012 - 11:55am