Haiku Sticky #429

Yesterday I awoke to the news of another domestic terrorist mass killing. Then the White House press secretary quoted John 15:13, and, followed it up a bit later with "The only person with blood on their hands is the shooter. This isn’t a time for us to go after individuals or organizations." I call bullshit! There's blood on many, many hands. If not now, then when?

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

press secretary:
bloody hands she hopes
to cover

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

autumn sun
barely enough to sustain
the asters
yet more than enough to set
the afternoon on fire

Poetry Friday--"Abecedarian"

In writing an abecedarian for Michelle's September TLD challenge (she's featuring all the contributions today), the major stumbling-block for me was to find something for the letters Q and X. In most ABC books Q is usually satisfied by "Queen" or "Quilt," while X often is represented by "X marks the spot," "X-ray," or some word that begins with "eX" rather than X. I always think of using an eX word as cheating. Of course, there's really not a whole lot of words beside xylophone that someone would recognize. I got to thinking a bit more and came up with a solution--plain old X. Unfortunately, X likes being the center of attention! Here's my poem with a slightly tweaked illustration taken from an old book titled, The Pirate's Pocket Book, by Dion Clayton Calthrop.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

Abecedarian: An Xcellent Xcuse to Xpound

Ask me the goal. (I will xplain.)
Berate me for pursuing it. (I will xpand my argument.)
Celebrate if I achieve it. (...I'll be so xcited!)
Don't smirk, giggle, or
Emit guffaws. (Xempt yourself from such inanities!)
Frown not, either. (You will be xpelled!)
Give me your complete attention. (No xpense other than time is required.)
Hear me! (Let the xplications begin!)
I (me, on xhibit for all to see, and, judge)
Just came up with this brilliant, but slightly
Kooky idea of
Lavishly and lovingly lauding (okay, xceedingly hyperbolic) a
Minor (xcruciatingly so),
Neglected (xhaustingly so), letter, which is
Overpowered constantly by a certain vowel.
Peculiarly xtroverted, this cruciform marks spots and is
Quintessential to communication, yet is
Relegated to playing second fiddle to the xcessively bloviated letter E!
Surely
This cannot go
Undenied or unquestioned! (Xposure is necessary!)
Verily,
We must embrace the letter X. (And render xtraneous vowels xtinct.)
X! All by its lonesome self--no
Yielding to the call of that xtra E.
Zip, nada, nothing, but X! The xceptional letter.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Laura is hosting the Round-Up today at Writing the World for Kids--she's waiting for you!

Haiku Sticky #428

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

Goldenrod, cinquefoil,
beggerticks, buttercups,
hawkweed, goatsbeard.
It's as if autumn seized
the summer sun to parcel
out to delirious bees.

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Poetry Friday--Frost and Found

A big shout-out to Michelle Barnes who is featuring a post I wrote for TLD, "How to Get to Carnegie Hall." Be sure to check it out!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

A long time ago I wrote an article titled, "Frost and Found." It was about "finding" haiku in the poems of Robert Frost. It never did see its way into print, but, I still think it is a valid approach to writing haiku, especially for kids who cry, "I don't know what to write about." Frost's work is chocky-block full of strong visual images. If you can't find a million images in a book of Frost's, there's something wrong with you.

Frost provides the images, and it's up to me, as the poet, and you, as the reader, to find the relationship to humans. I'm going to use Frost's phrases, but not necessarily in the order he presented them.

Since it's still apple picking time here in NH, and, since apples are particularly abundant this year, I thought I'd see what haiku lie hidden in "After Apple-Picking."

After Apple-Picking

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Here are five haiku I found:

fleck of russet...
through a tree magnified
apples appear

of no worth
a barrel that I didn't
fill

cider-apple heap
ten thousand thousand fruit
struck the earth

coming in
scent of apples
on the night

rumbling sound
I keep hearing...
this sleep of mine

How many haiku can you find?

Amy at The Poem Farm is this week's Round-Up host. Please stop by!

Haiku Sticky #427

I'm not quite sure if this is a haiku (deals with Nature) or a senryu (deals with human nature). I'm leaning toward senryu. For those who don't know, a kigo is a seasonal word that acts as a shortcut. You read the word and you know exactly what season it is.

Pumpkin-spice has taken on a superstar role in the fall. You see it absolutely everywhere. Most people I know have long grown weary of it. Does anyone really need pumpkin-spice Pringles?

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

pumpkin-spice
the new kigo brings
an eye roll