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

A Somewhat Steamy Friday Afternoon at the Haikulodeon

 

 

 

Here's this week's heap of haikus:

 

 

tanka haiku for 9/11 -
 
I pass Ground Zero
often on my way to work.
I can not forget.
   The scar has still not healed.  Life
   has not returned to 'normal.'


(This Image for 9/11 courtesy of my friend, Jennifer Dye Visscher's Art Apple a Day Project to raise AS Awareness.)

 

---

 

We will read 'the names'
as long as it matters. It
will always matter.


---


... then the buildings fell;
our world decimated ... but ...
heroes would emerge.

 

---

9/11 - tanka haiku + haiku
 
‘Dear Lord, what’s happened?!’
Shocking. Unbelievable.
Even now, we weep.
   For we sat and watched evil,
   attempt to kill our spirit.
 
 

But we shall resist,
We will not yield, nor forget,
And we will survive.


---

 

 

 


Electronic tones
manufacture melodies.
Inhumane practice?

(Cindy Electronium 1959 - by Raymond Scott)


 

---

 

 


Autumn in New York,
leaves crackle underfoot as
I stroll through the park.


---

 

A sleeping dog guards
the pumpkin harvest while the
leaves drift from the trees.

 
---


Sad when Summer ends,
and the school year starts anew ...
Said no mom ever.

 

---


 

 

Though she pined for him,
she could not find a way to
gracefully forgive.

 

 


---


 
Clouds surround mountains,
evergreens anchor the slopes,
temple bells echo.

 

---


Autumn arrives with
colorful foliage and
orchards to harvest.

 

 

 

---

 

He sits quietly
on a stool in a diner
and stares at his soup.

 

 

---
 

 

Silent surrender;
she flops onto the sofa
and turns on TV.


---


I gave you my heart.
Tuck it in your shirtwaist and
gaze at it often


---

 


I gave you my heart ...
and now my blood is pooling.
Form follows function.

 

 


---

 

 


And so, moving on,
he gave up all his comforts,
to find a new path.

 

 

---

 


 
As I fall asleep,
whispers of memories drift
through my consciousness ...


---


tanka haiku: 

 

She found some paper,
then opened her crayon box
and began to draw.
   She scribbled wildly, then
   triumphantly, signed her name.


 

 

---

 

 


Down a garden path,
that leads to a wooden bench,
I find solitude.

 

 


---

 

 


 Then she placed her hand,
gently on his shoulder, and
he broke down and sobbed.


 

 

---


 

 

 

Dropping jaws amongst
the mystified spectators,
told him the trick worked.

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

She seldom complained,
was quick with a comeback, so...
was taken lightly.

 

 

---


 No one is pristine
by the time they reach sixty
Life does take a toll.

 


---


 

 

 Solid evidence
 of who and what we once were
 will get lost in Time.
 

 


---

 

 


 If you twist my arm ...
then my shoulder will pop out ...
so please ... don't do that.

 

 


---

 

 


You must keep in mind;
to deteriorate is
the way of all things.

 

 

 

---

 

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.

 

 

 

---

 

 

 


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

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

Leaves swirled around her,
tumbling in her wake like
fawning sycophants.


---

 

Reaching for the moon
Is an admirable goal.
Having patience helps.

 

(Photograph courtesy Kristina Rebelo)

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

We drove through the night
to see the fall foliage
mirrored in the lake.

 

 

---

 

 

 

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

 

 


---

 

 

 

 

Lying in the sun's
the universal sign of
complete contentment.

 

 

 


---


 

 

 

The teacher threw a
book at the sleeping pupil.
Knowledge can hurt you.

 

 

 

---

 

A quintet of haikus:

 

 

Under a pale sky,
a man in a hat, sits and
reads his newspaper.

 

As the daylight ebbs,
the man folds the newspaper,
gets up, and goes home.

 

In the dark of night,
he lies in bed and ponders
all that he has read ...

 

When he awakes, he
gets up, finds his hat and grabs
a new newspaper.

 

The mind's the engine,
that drives our train of thought. We
must keep feeding it.

 

---

 

 

 

 

 


He hikes his socks up,
she pulls his pants down... In Life,
things will even out.

 

 

---

 

 

Sucker-punched by thugs,
smooched by dames, he fired his gat ...
(He dreams in film noir.)

 


---

 

 

 

There are times when no
words will suffice, we just need
to look at flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

---

 


tanka haiku:

We fight our whole lives
to thrive in the world of our
parents, only to

discover that we’re living
in the world of our children.

 

 

 


 

 

Autumn in New York,
leaves crackle underfoot as
I stroll through the park.


 

 

---


 

 

Moon behind the clouds,
fields aglow in bluish light,
small foxes prowl.


 

---

 

 

 Inside his wallet
was a lonely place to live,
Single sawbuck sighs.


 

---

 

 


In between the lines,
she'd written stage directions.
Smart understudy.

 

 

---


 

 

Hark! A noise yonder
echoes through the dark of night
Gather the horses!

 

 


---

 

 


The usual flow
receives the usual ebb ...
The moon rules the tides.


 

 

---

 

 

 


Many a great man
has been brought low by the smell
of baby powder.

 

 

 

 

---


double haiku:

Mom made lemonade
Dad worked on the truck, and I
held the monkey wrench.

When we took a break
we listened to the ballgame,
Mom made sandwiches.

 

 

---

 


Behind a closed door,
underneath the sheets, they tried

to come together.

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 


Cunning conundrums,
thoroughly mixed metaphors ...
twisted conclusions.

 

 

 

 
---

 

 

 

 

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

 
 
---

 

 


 
The sober mirror
flaunts my discrepancies and
glues them in my brain.

 

 

 


---

 

 

Slightly Risque-ku:

 

When a pencil's shoved
in your testicles, you'll yell,
"TICONDEROGA!!"

 

 

---

 

 

Your 'precious time's' not
worth the luminous dial
that it's painted on.

 

 


---

 

 


Serial writers
will find it easier to
use the Alpha-Bits.

 

 


---

 


Psychedelic 60's-ku:


While the Patchouli
smoldered in his filthy room,
his mom got incensed.

 


---

 

 

When you're old enough
to stand upon a chair, it's
time to take a seat.

(A young MrSmith1  in 1951.)

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

A little Autumn to listen to.


Lovely.  Thanks, trking! 
 


You are welcome.  I just thought is was soothing.  A nice change from the arguing that goes on sometimes. 

I am looking forward to cooler weather.  I get tired of the heat.  It has rained here this morning so it is like a sauna outside. I need to get busy and get some of my Saturday chores done.  I am dragging my feet today.  


I sent my baby

A birthday card for her First

Singing telegram

I wrote her my take

You will soon find out that you

Are the middle child

And that's just okay

But you shall always

Be in the middle of my 

Heart, my heart will be

With you, and always

One year is a mark

Time goes on and on and on

I love this girl


Happy Birthday Jolee Diane!!


Why do tears come when I read this?

You remember.

Jolee Diane indeed! ha


Enjoy those early birthdays.  Those will be the ones that will stay in your memories. 


A Singing Telegram!!  Oh DD, you really are such a doting Grandpa!   I can't think of a better thing to say to a middle child than what you wrote here about their being in the middle of your heart. 

 

 


Mr. Smith, they have these cards that 'sing'.

You open them up and a song appears!

Some computer thingy.

Delightful.

We actually have this card shop (how they ever make money on this side of town is beyond me) that has all these singing cards.

And I thought about the old singing telegrams.

At any rate, my son and his wife love children and this love is just wonderful.

I have had the opportunity to watch Mama with her baby. She loves her baby and babies.

I hope the new one is a boy.

Is that misogynistic? hahhaahha I do not care! hahhahaah

​Anyway, Jolee is just perfect and Precious still loves her. And life is nice.

It is nice when life is nice?

And Jolee shall always have a place in the middle of my heart.

 


Jolee, Jolee, Jolee

Joe leeEeeeeee

Oh ​I beg, don't you mind being the middle child

Jolee, Jolee, Jolee

Joe leeEeeeee

Please don't mind being the middle...Grandchild.

(Ok I did the chores. Now would some one jump in with the next verse)

 

I like Miley better this way then what she has made herself now into. 


Just delightful!


Where's the glove?

Once upon a time, Joan Baez thought Dylan would stick around forever playing folk songs. But people get them itchy feet (& other parts). Diamonds & Rust, eh?


She's hurting tonight.

The brother she loves is lost

inside homelessness.

But it's too simple,

too innocent to say he's

washed inside the dark.

He walks his own path,

finds a way to make her laugh;

even as he cries.


Wouldn't it be nice

If we could step back just once

From now to back then

All the adult fears

worries and complications

turned back to a game.

Once it was "play right"

And all we had to risk was

Losing or be spanked.

Wouldn't it be nice

To face the world with support -

"Mommy, I'm so scared..."

Blood is thicker than

Water, and sticks around all

These tough, trying years.


You did it again.


wink


Nicely done. PP.
 


Lovely, Missy!


She knows through her tears
the brother she loves is lost
in a haze of drugs.

feeling so helpless
is bewildering to her
she's been strong so long.

Devastated by
her own ineffectiveness
she sits, not moving

She cries for him now
and later for herself for
she knows he is lost.

lost until and / or
if ever her brother finds
the path back to Life.

 


he said I love you

in a yellow subtitle

so, how does she know?


Keith Partridge singz it

Shirley Jones plays tambourine

Yellow feathers coo


Shirley Jones could sing
without help from Partridges ...
or that stupid bus.


Sometimes she would lead

Sometimes she would sing backup

Danny did the drugs.


Nice, Oxy!

 

'cuz a woman's heart's
intuitive; subtler
than a sub-title. 


Constitution Day

the date Ramona arrived,

as well as myself.

 

Happy birthday to us, Ramona.

 

 


HA!!  Happy Birthday to ALL of you!!
 


Strict interpretists

Birthed on Constitution Day.

Original intent?


Who ya callin' strict?

A living Constitution

aches with growing pains.


People trying to
form a more perfect union
must work together.

Providing for our
domestic tranquility
ain't no game of jacks.


Stripped contortionists

Constitutionally blocked - 

Philly bustier? Ding...


Striped contortionists
On the other hand, often
are quite encouraged. 


A leotard change its
stripes? spotted the diff'rence right
away. Some G-string.

Good one, PP!


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