Haiku Sticky #447

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

the only green
this February day
in the cat's eye

Happy Haiga Day!

From the ongoing 6th Annual February Daily Poetry Project. The illustration screamed for a limerick, and so, I listened...

Limerick © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Illustration © John Herzog, used with permission.

Text:

There once was a 'gator named Nathan
who eschewed the state of brumation.
He skied and he skated--
and was truly elated--
to became an Olympic sensation.

Poetry Friday--Haiku Routine (and Rant)

[Please note: much of today's post has been stated here before, so if you're tired of a crazy, librarian-poet's ranting, you may want to skip this.]

In the morning, after feeding the cat and making coffee, I sit down and check the daily haiku posted at Mann Library's Daily Haiku hosted by Cornell University, Haiku in English hosted by The Mainichi, Japan's National Daily newspaper, and The Haiku Foundation (the daily haiku appears at the top of the page as part of the banner).

The Mainichi's haiku editor is Dhugal Lindsay, and he has selected the "Best of 2017" haiku that appeared throughout the year. The best are collected, with comments, in 68 pages, and presented as a PDF that you can download and read at your leisure. Lindsay has written the introduction. If you think haiku is just a three-line poem where syllable count is its most important feature, you need to read it.

Nowhere in the introduction does it mention three lines of 5-7-5.

Read through the haiku and you'd be hard-pressed to find one close to 17 syllables total. There are no in-your-face lessons taught by the haiku. No rhymes. No one tells you what conclusions to draw (except, on occasion, in the editor's commentary).

It is my hope that one day soon, a children's book editor comes across this "Best of 2017" introduction and takes it to heart. I would happily support any number of recent children's books that are subtitled, "Haiku about..., if only the subtitles were rewritten as, "Short poems about..." Right now, I read these books, gather what information the poet is trying to tell me about the world of naked mole rats or some other curriculum-related topic, and then shake my head at lost opportunities for a young reader to appreciate haiku.

Okay, rant over! I can't end without a haiku, now can I? Here's an ekphrastic one:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. "Sleeping Cat" by Jacques-Émile Blanche.

Text:

a closer look...
the old cat's chest
slowly rises

Elizabeth Steinglass is hosting this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up. Liz is one of those people who understands haiku, and, she is now an award-winning haiku poet! Click here. Congratulations, Liz!

Oh, No! What Happened to the Haiku Sticky?

Well, I got tied up, so I'll have to skip a week. However, I'll post a little satirical piece that I wrote in response to the Viking statue below.

Photo courtesy Scott Rhoades.

30-Second Commercial on Norwegian TV at 3:00 AM

Alve Gokstad here!

Ladies! You've heard the claims--

A certain VIP (Very Impotent Person)
is offering you the opportunity to
emigrate to the Land of the Free.

I'm here to tell you nothing
is free in the Land of the Free
if someone can make a buck.

As for the Home of the Brave--
it's smoke and mirrors with
a sad-looking nuclear football.

No smoke here in Norway!
Real fire! No deflated balls--
broadswords & hard shields!

So, let Norway light your fire!
Remember: Vi elsker deg! *
Norway--no horny in our horns!

* We love you!


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Happy Haiga Day!

I needed something a little less dreary for today (in both image and spirit), so I paired this 2012 poem with a late summer photo.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

A Walk on the Beach

Work of moon
and tides more
years than I can
imagine found
between my toes.

Poetry Friday--"The Fortune Teller"

I'm taking part in Laura Shovan's February daily challenge to write an ekphrastic poem (art about art). This one, which I wrote on February 2, is able to stand on its own without the original work of art that inspired it. For today, I have illustrated it with pages taken from old books.

Click on image to enlarge. © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

The Fortune Teller

The fortune teller
took my hand
spread it palm up
to trace its lines.

My lines my life.

“You have embarked
on a journey,” she said,
“the road I see
ahead is circuitous.”

She looked up.

“Do you do nothing
directly?” She asked.

I pondered for a bit...

“No,” I whispered softly.
“I'm a poet.”

“Ah,” she said. “That
explains the slant
to the pavement.”

Jone is hosting the Round-Up at Check It Out!

Haiku Sticky #446

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

tree full of crows
each with its own
opinion

Happy Haiga Day!

A poem that was written in response to a painting. It can stand alone without the original inspiration piece and so I have illustrated it for today.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Forget-Me-Not

En plein air was not
a phrase she would have
heard, but instinctually
she knew the galaxies of blue
required painting from life.

She waited through fall,
and winter, for April to
arrive so that the blues
could flow through her fingers
and be confined to canvas.

Poetry Friday--Spark Postcards

Four times a year I take part in an original postcard exchange that has been organized by Amy Souza, the founder of Spark Art from Writing: Writing from Art. I had the month of January to create four postcards to send to people in Florida, New York, Oregon, and Virginia. To say that the winter here in New England has been a challenge is an understatement, so all my postcards had winter as their unifying theme.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Illustration from More about the Squirrels by Eleanor Tyrrell (1915).

Text:

January
squirrel--branch to branch
--tree to tree
creating snow flurries to
bring attention to the sun

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

record lows
the cat draped around
my neck

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

winter again
knitted scarf with the scent
of last year

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Illustration from Children of Winter by Maud Humphrey (1888) was altered by me.

Text:

winter lingers...
her mother gives up trying
to match mittens

Viait our friend, Sally Murphy, for this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up coming to us from the other side of the world.

Haiku Sticky #445

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

her shadow
its convexity more
pronounced

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

not knowing
I had a neighbor
...until the snow

Poetry Friday--"My Coffee Maker"

Here's an original poem for today based on a coffee maker! (I won't say I'm balmy, but I do think I'm leaning that way.)

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

My Coffee Maker

My coffee maker,
a gift from a friend,
would signal the completion
of its task with five rhythmic
beep...beep...beep...beep...beeps,
until, less than a year later,
it stopped its beeping
--cold turkey.

How I missed the sound!

Six months after that,
brewing finished, it issued
a single beep.

Now, it will, on occasion,
beep...beep...beep...beep...beep,
or, issue one lone toll.

Most of the time, though,
silence.

Like an old friendship
its coffee may not be as warm
as it once had been.
Yet, like an old friend,
my coffee maker can coax
a smile on the most
random of days.

Donna at Mainely Write will be hosting the Poetry Friday Round-Up, be sure to stop by!