The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    MrSmith1's picture

    A Friday afternoon birthday party at the Haikulodeon

    By MrSmith1 on Fri, 12/07/2012 - 1:33pm |

     

     
    Here's this week's heap of haikus:
     
     
    ----------------------------------------------
     
     
    Hooray!!  It is my
    birthday! One more year gone by.
    Where's my slice of cake?
     
     
    -------------------------------------------
     
     
    tanka haiku:
     
    Now that I am old,
    I don't have to ask for help,
    nice folks will offer.

    Of course, what they offer is,
    seldom what I need. Oh well.
     
     
    ----------------------------------------------
     
     
    (slightly risque haiku:)

    On my head sits a
    cat. A rather large one at
    that. That cat just shat.
     
     
     
    -------------------------------------------------
     
     
    walking hand in hand,
    we reach the edge of the dream.
    there, I let you go.
     
     
    --------------------------------------------------
     
     
    tanka haiku:

    It's not through weakness
    of your spirit that you've got
    a chronic disease.

    The fault lies, in dear Brutus,
    and his pal Cassius' 'stars.'
     
    ---
     
    Respondku from my friend, David:

    Brutus and Cassius ...
    If they got the stars, then why
    do we have the pain?
     
     
    Tanka Respond-ku:
     
    Who's got the pain when
    they do the mambo, who's got
    the pain when they go....

    Damn, one syllable too long!
    ERRRRRRRP!  It's not even a word!
     
     
     
    ------------------------------------------
     
     
    A rosy outlook
    may still have thorny problems.
    Gardeners, wear gloves.
     
     
    --------------------------------------------
     
     
     
    Life may intrude on
    well-crafted scenarios,
    don't write them in ink.
     
     
    -----------------------------------------------
     
     
     
     
    An incoming tide,
    coral clouds at sunrise ... all
    our Hopes are reborn.
     
     
    (Photo of Ocean City, NJ sunrise on 12-2-2012) 
     
    ---------------------------------------------------
     
     
    A haiku cycle in 3 parts:

    20's-ku:

    The promise of youth
    may be mere speculation,
    but it's all I've got.
     
    40's-ku:
     
    The promise of youth
    may have to be postponed, but
    it will be fulfilled.
     
    60's-ku:

    The promise of youth;
    a lie, a sham, a fraud, but
    it kept me going.
     
     
     
    -------------------------------------------
     
     
    .tanka haiku:

    I have been too bad
    to be a saint; too good to
    be the anti-Christ.

    What does that leave me? Only
    a real boring middle ground.
     
     
     
    -------------------------------------------------
     
     
     
    In snowy woods, I
    follow tiny footprints, which
    suddenly vanish.
     
     
    ----------------------------------------------------
     
     
    It's not that I find
    you intriguing, it's just that
    in you, I see me.
     
     
    ------------------------------------------------------
     
     
     
     
     What do small boys think
    when they play at being men?
    "Has mom made my lunch?"
     
     
    -------------------------------------------------------
     
     
     
     
     
     
    The snow on the fence,
    looks like the mashed potatoes
    on my dinner plate.
     
     
     
    ---------------------------------------------------------
     
     
     
    Live a life of love,
    look to better angels, carve
    your own walking stick.
     
     
    -----------------------------------------------------
     
     
     
    Time flies, yes it does,
    'here and now' will soon be 'was'...
    But why? Just because ...
     
    --------------------------------
     
    (To a Facebook friend in Pakistan who sent me birthday wishes yesterday:)
     
     
    The world where you are,
    sees each day begin while I'm
    still stuck in last night.
     
     
    (And to another friend in Australia...)
     
     

    I always marvel
    at how people "down under"
    live in my future.
     
     
     
    -----------------------------------------------
     
    Christmas with the Condiments - The Original Short Story.
     
     
     
     

    Comments

    Oh good, you showed up.

    I actually have a story.

    OH AND HAPPY FRICKIN BIRTHDAY SMITH! HA

    Anyway....I went to the grocers and when I came back there was this rather tall and old (I mean old compared to me which is really old) all covered in winter clothing with a scarf! I mean it was 21 degrees F and I had my eskimo outfit on) woman and she always screams at me. I mean she is most probably hard of hearing. hahahaha

    So I always stop to greet her and she tells me something that is not 'reognizable' ha.

    We exchange pleasantries anyway cause I always pretend to understand what in the hell she is talking about. hhahahaha

    I take another walk later on and here she comes. She is 'disabled' and she has been walking around the entire pond evidently. And she uses this 'walker' with wheels.

    It is kind of a neat contraption because is also serves as a chair if and when she becomes tired.

    Anyway...She calls me over once again and she whispers in my ear:

    YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT I FOUND!

    Oh well that is interesting, I responded!

    And she lifts up the 'seat' which is able to contain an object or two.

    I FOUND A DEAD MUSKRAT!

    And sure enough, she picks up the seat and there is a frozen baby muskrat.

    What she is going to do with that frozen baby muskrat...well I really do not wish to know.

    BUT...

    There are omens in this universe. At least that is what I have been taught through tomes thousands of years older than me.

    So my question to my favorite poet is....

    WHAT THE HELL DOES A DEAD FROZEN BABY MUSKRAT HAVE to do with me?

    hahahahahah

     

     

     


    by Richard Day on Fri, 12/07/2012 - 5:51pm

     

    Frozen muskrats mean
    one thing, I feel, Bad news for 
    Captain and Tennille.


     

     

     


    by MrSmith1 on Fri, 12/07/2012 - 6:16pm

    I totally forgot about this song.

    I still needed Mustang Sally of course to enhance my silly story. hahaha

    Momoe never got over here and gave me Muskrat Love at my post later in the night.

    To this day I am not sure who made 'him' CAPTAIN!

     


    by Richard Day on Sat, 12/08/2012 - 3:46pm

    So I was feeling pretty blue today, what with my Michigan, the state where modern collective bargaining was born, now most surely about to become that most odious of states--the Right-to-Work--but you and Dick have cheered me up considerably, at least for the moment.

    I want to wish you a happy birthday, Mr. Smith1. (Is there a Mr. Smith2?)  You are a very clever man and I'm in awe of your haiku skills.  I don't even dare try, unimaginative as I am.  But that doesn't stop me from appreciating yours.

     


    by Ramona on Fri, 12/07/2012 - 8:25pm

    Thank you, Ramona.  As for there being a MrSmith2 ... I come from a long line of Smiths.  Actually, two long lines of Smiths; one completely unrelated Smith line is on my mother's side of the family tree, so don't get me started counting Mr Smiths.  smiley

     

    .


    by MrSmith1 on Fri, 12/07/2012 - 10:53pm

    And here I thought "MrSmith1" was a pen name.  I guess when you're a Smith there's no danger of anyone guessing who you really are!


    by Ramona on Sat, 12/08/2012 - 2:38pm

     

    I was thinking of writing on blog on this.  I have two of the commonest names in America.  Do you know that there are 88 different people with my exact same first and last names listed on Wikipedia? EIGHTY-EIGHT!!  And that's just the ones famous enough to be put on Wikipedia!!   (Sigh.)

     

    P.S. As for the pen name, it's the old hide in plain sight trick.  ;-)

     

     


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 12/08/2012 - 4:41pm

    Well, Happy Beleaguered Belated Birthday, Mr. Smith. cool ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.


    by wabby on Sun, 12/09/2012 - 6:58pm

    Thanks Flower. laugh

     

    Beleaguered birthdays 

    better be belated by

    busty, bawdy broads.

     

     

     

     

     


    by MrSmith1 on Sun, 12/09/2012 - 7:38pm

    Happy Birthday.  Is that little child in the picture you?  It looks like a 1950 picture because of the sun suit the child has on.


    by trkingmomoe on Sun, 12/09/2012 - 8:23pm

    Thanks.  Yup, that's me, circa 1953.  


    by MrSmith1 on Sun, 12/09/2012 - 10:49pm

    Ahhhhhhhhh, this showed up and I wept.

    DAMN!

    Or rather, how wonderful!

    The world where you are

    Sees each day begin while I'm

    Still stuck in last night.

    WOW

    Whoever started this thought, thank you.

    I thought of this song.


    by Richard Day on Fri, 07/27/2018 - 9:36pm

    Right there with ya, my friend.


    by barefooted on Fri, 07/27/2018 - 10:07pm