Saturday, July 30, 2011

Love And Memory

Sprint, if you will, 'cross
The heartful grounds,
There is no escape
From love's sight hounds...
Nothing is stronger,
Or runs deeper-longer.

Papa's SENRYU (Batch Number 3)

The afternoon heat
Feels worse, after the
News says it's "so hot"...
- - - - - - - - - -
Mowing the lawn,
Even after 20 years,
Is unchanged -- still a pain.
- - - - - - - - - -
The border between fantasy,
And science fiction,
Is where, exactly?
- - - - - - - - - -
Despite best-intentioned
Attempted rescue
The transplanted flower wilts.
- - - - - - - - - -
Suburban matrons' happiness:
Stretch yoga pants and
Boxes of diet brownies.

Holden Caufield

J.D. Sallinger's
"Catcher In The Rye"
Meant so much to me,
But I can't describe why...

It just tasted good,
Like a good book should.

Convectional Healing

He and she have a fight,
Emotions, no kinetics,
Won't end soon, try as they might,
Feelings swirl around the pair,
A typhoon passes between them
Which, later, leaves the air
Clearer, cooler-bright,
A counter-clockwise mixer,
In the end, like a fixer.

Need To Know

The government secrets clerk asks
If I have a "need to know"... 
I wonder which "need"
Is referred to, though: 
The hungry one, which has to feed, 
Or, required for working, apropos...?

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Avian Dedication

The sparrow hops, on tiny legs,
Bouncing near, it pauses, and begs,
I suppose, it must serve its eggs.

Under Our Feet

Who is more important,
Ants or men, respectively?
It's not that obvious,
When looked at, perspectively...
And hard to believe,
Though it may seem,
Ants are better organized
Under their queen,
Man proclaims that he is best,
But formidable ants carry-on unseen.

8 Thoughts From Soren Kierkegaard

1. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.

2. Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

3. Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

4. Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

5. People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something.

6. People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

7. The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

8. The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.

Home, Backyard, July 2011

Where the tree used to be
Is a cricle of brown dirt
Easy enough to see,
There, in the middle of the green
Lawn, now absent of shade,
Squirrels gone, as well the haven
For birds, the old sick tree made...

Where the tree stood
The grass does not grow,
But the breeze flows freely,
And I wonder if they know,
The birds, who now wing across
Where the tree used to be,
Of its absence, of our backyard loss...

Papa's SENRYU (Batch Number 2)

Early morning meeting,
Father off to work,
Teenager back from party.
- - - - - - - - - -
300,000,000 blogs
Which are read, mostly,
By those who write them.
- - - - - - - - - -
On dreamy-dulled vacation
Lots of time to lull-relax
But still check the Blackberry
- - - - - - - - - -
A feeling of total hopelessness
Trapped in middle seat of five,
Economy section of a 747-400
- - - - - - - - - -
Atmospheric turbulence
Under the dinner table
After a big meal of beans
- - - - - - - - - -
Instictively watch the clock:
Closing moments of a tight game,
During a sermon run too long.

Trans-Pac, Cattle-Class

Maybe just because I'm
Jammed into a pressurized
Aluminium tube, jetting time,
Stressed, anesthetized
At 30,000 feet altitude,
Is why I can eat every single bit
Of the baked-nasty airline food.

Gridlock

Politicians pander,
While reporters spew
Propagander,
But real leaders,
Few and wise,
Hammer-out the compromise.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Gray Epiphany

Awakened, and soon outside,
I'm walking under rainy skies:
Shades of gray, which curl and drift
So elegantly -- And I realize
This day is a treasure and a gift
We must enjoy, but never waste,
Use the time to enrich and uplift,
And carefully step to avoid the haste
With which we often squander
The precious moments through which we wander...

Post Command

Old generals, some say,
Don't die, but fade away,
But it's not that simple
Nor dramatic nor clean,
There's multiple outcomes,
If you know what I mean...
Some become symposium talkers
While others are dog walkers,
There's sitters at board meetings
Givers of Walmart greetings,
Some relearning how to drive,
Others just happy to be alive...
Ultimately -- shine, fizzle, or fade,
Each sleeps in the kind of bed he made.

Monday, July 4, 2011

See The Snake


He holds in his hand a slithering
Wiggling tube of flesh
Standing in the midst of dithering
Hollow men and random robots
Wandering under a blithering
Sun, without much purpose...
Hence the waving of the asp
Coiled striped reptile of death
Squirming in the prophet's grasp
As he calls out the news
Of pain and happiness yet to come
Which are not ours to flee or choose
Until the work of fate is done
Like the earthquake in Japan
Endless war in Afghanistan
The scientific triumph of man
Turns out to be the biggest mistake
Our history a poorly told joke
Belly laughs over the mess we make
Eat and multiply until we choke
Just listen to the man with the snake...

Friday, July 1, 2011

Post Rehab, Undefeated

He's all cleaned up, his hair
And beard trimmed shorter
Than before, and where
He used to be covered with
Dirt, and oozing beyond repair,
Seemingly hopeless, now fixed,
But still with the crazy-man stare...

What is he thinking
As he sits with his bags and wine,
Or is he quietly sinking
To where the sun don't shine,
Weighed-down with the devil's gift
Of bad karma, too heavy to lift,
He's all cleaned up, but can't arise,
Or wake from the null that shows in his eyes...

Flight Test

The mother swallow flies
An example from the edge
Of the nest, to the ledge,
Whereafter, the child swallow tries
Its wings, fluttering, crying...
The child does not fall,
The mother watches it all...
And soon the child will be trying
Swallow aerobatics on the breeze,
Eating legions of insects with ease,
But it started with mother swallow
And flight testing under the eaves.

What's This!?

Mother's shock and surprise
Sorting out the laundry
Finding a stranger's underpants

Sultry Mega-City

Summer Tokyo nights
Slowly cooling streets
And a galaxy of lights
From restaurants and bars
Of all flavors and beats
As numerous as the stars

Breaking Up

That part of my heart
Which cannot be recycled
Must be burnt, or
Crushed into a cube
And buried, according
To standing ordinances
Covering disposal of
Hazardous romantic waste.