Here's this week's heap of haikus: 

 

 

Autumn taught 'em, when
the first leaf falls from a tree
Summer soon will wane.

 ( I saw that first leaf today, lying quietly on the sidewalk.)

 

 

---

 

 

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?

 

 

---

 

 

Our Ford Country Squire
strained hard to pull the trailer
up Mount Washington.

(Our old Ford Station Wagon with a trailer attached, the Summer we went camping at Lake Sebago in Maine.)

 

 

---

 

 

 

Moonlight Sonata
played like a cantata, will
give you stigmata.

 

 

 

---

 

 

A smokin' Tom waits
for the pentameter gates
I am (something) verse.

"I am bic", he yelled,
but t'was easy to tell, he
was a fountain pen.

 

 

---

 

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

---

 

History today!
The Japanese Surrendered
ATMs arrived!

(September 2, 1945, the Japanese formally surrendered, ending WW2.  On September 2, 1969, the first ATM in the U.S. starting giving out money.)

 

 

 

---

 

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.

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

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

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

The deepening blue
gently quiets golden waves.  
Nightfall approaches.

 

(Photograph courtesy of Kristina Rebelo)

 

 

 

---

 

 

In a small garden,
pansies wait patiently for
roses to be picked.

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

Like they always say,
Love is blind, but absinthe makes
green whores Jane Fonda.

 

"The Absinthe Drinker" by Viktor Oliva 1901

 

 

---

 

 

 

   

Kindergarten art
saved by mom for 50 years,
always makes me cry.

 

Actual work of art created by me in Kindergarten circa 1955. I called it, "The colored lights of Niagara Falls."   I found this in the 1990's in a box my mother had saved of me and my sister;s early creative efforts. As you can also see, I still hadn't quite mastered how to sign my work of art. The second photo is the scene that I drew from memory.

 

 

---

 

 

In an apple tree
sits a happy little boy
dangling his feet.

 

 

---

 

 

 

Faceless men wander
city streets searching for hope
in the pouring rain.
 

Manhattan rain, unknown location, 1945. Photo by Arthur Leipzig

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

Few half-way measures,
get as much coverage as
a partial eclipse

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

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

 

 

---

 

 

When daffodils bloom,
near the edge of one’s garden,
passers-by may pluck.
 

 

 

 

 

---

 

Sitting quietly,
pondering vicissitudes,
sure works up a thirst!

 

 

 

---

 

 

tanka haiku:

 

She wore pink spandex
on her summer vacation,
which caused a riot.

 

---

 

Bonus poem:

 

About a dozen years ago, I was lying in a hospital bed (for some reason, I forget exactly which one ... ), and the television had not been hooked up yet, so I was listening to The Raymond Scott Quintet on my iPod ... Raymond Scott was a popular big-band leader from the late 30's and 40's, who, later, became one of the pioneers of electronic music. He was also married to singer Dorothy Collins and worked for Mo-Town in the 60's as head of their electronic music division. One of the songs on the album was titled, "Yesterday's Ice-cubes are Water Today." So I start making up this poem in my head, using the title of the song as the first line of the poem, but not having pen and paper handy, I had to keep repeating it over and over in my head until the next morning when I was able to write it down ... Anyway. I came across the poem today and it still makes me chuckle.

 

 

 

****