Haiku Sticky #90

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Image by Katsushika Hokusai courtesy Visipix.com.

Poetry Friday--The Little Ships

Maybe you saw the news clips last weekend of the Japanese firemen who volunteered to direct water cannons at the critically overheated nuclear power plant reactors? They ceremoniously took an oath and got into their trucks, the reality being, many of them will suffer physical harm, and perhaps, a painful death, as a result of their actions.

With that in mind, I'd like to share this old poem written by Hilton Brown. It appears in several anthologies, and was originally published in Punch and reprinted in a weekly literary magazine, The Living Age, in 1916.

THE LITTLE SHIPS.

"The small steamer...struck a mine
yesterday and sank. The crew perished."
                                                                  Daily Paper.

Who to the deep in ships go down
      Great marvels do behold,
But comes the day when some must drown
      In the gray sea and cold.
For galleons lost great bells do toll,
      But now must we implore
God's ear for sunken Little Ships
      Who are not heard of more.

When ships of war put out to sea
      They go with guns and mail,
That so the chance may equal be
      Should foemen them assail;
But Little Ships men's errands run
      And are not clad for strife;
God's mercy then on Little Ships
      Who cannot fight for life.

To warm and cure, to clothe and feed
      They stoutly put to sea,
And since that men of them had need
      Made light of jeopardy;
Each in her hour her fate did meet
      Nor flinched nor made outcry;
God's love be with these Little Ships
      Who could not choose but die.

To friar and nun, and every one
      Who lives to save and tend,
Sisters were these whose work is done
      And cometh thus to end;
Full well they know what risk they ran
      But still were strong to give;
God's grace for all the Little Ships
      Who died that men might live.

Punch.

Normally a poem like this would strike me as a bit overwrought, but not this week.

Join Mary Lee at A Year of Reading for the Poetry Friday Round-Up.

Haiku Sticky #89

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Miscellaneous Stuff

The Kidlit4Japan auction to benefit the victims of the earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan begins today. Check the page frequently over the next few weeks. I'll have signed copies of Littlebat's Halloween Story up for bid, and Apprentice Shop Books will have several books in the auction, also.

I want to mention that some of my haiku can be seen on the Turtle Light Press website. I entered their haiku chapbook competition last year, I didn't win, but TLP generously put up a bunch of losers' poems. (I say, "losers" with tongue firmly planted in cheek.) I'm in some pretty nice company! The winning chapbook, by Catherine J. S. Lee will be published next month.

Although it's a long way to cherry blossom time here in New Hampshire, the National Cherry Blossom Festival is right around the corner. It's one of my "bucket list" goals!

Here's a repeat haiga (first posted last year on a Poetry Friday):

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Image courtesy Library of Congress.

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Image courtesy Library of Congress.


I'm torn about using this for "Happy" Haiga Day. Although I think it can be read in several ways, I don't think any of them are particularly happy.

If you can't make out the text it says,

after this spring
who will bear the fruit
Sendai

Poetry Friday--Oh, to Live in Saint Paul

I love living in New Hampshire! I've been here since 1976 and I'm planning to stay here until I go to that big anthology in the sky. But, just for today I'd like to be from Saint Paul, MN. Why? Because Saint Paul is city that appreciates poetry. And, it allows its sidewalks to be adorned with poems. Isn't that great?

The 4th Annual Saint Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest began on Tuesday and will run through April 17. Winners will have their poems cast in concrete, and, they win a cash prize. Wow! What a thrill that must be! It's almost enough to make me want to move there!

In the past three years, "31 poems have been impressed into 268 sidewalk sites citywide." I especially like this quote from the man who created the program, Marcus Young,

We think nowhere else in the world can the residents of a city publish their poems in a book the size of St. Paul. I encourage all St. Paulites to submit short poems and contribute compelling and beautiful thoughts to the everyday experience of walking our sidewalks.

Good luck to all you St. Paulite poets!

Here's a video that was produced for last year's contest:



So, if you lived in Saint Paul, which of your poems would you submit?

Here's a tanka that might work:

cat's body alert
to the sounds through
the open window
...after the rain
breathing it all in

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Head over to A Wrung Sponge for the Poetry Friday Round-Up. Andi has some nice haiku on there that would look very nice on a sidewalk!