down in the basement
vacuuming shards of sunshine
slanting ‘cross the floor.
This a re-working of a recent haiku. Not much time to write lately (my daughter got married last weekend!), so 17 syllables are as much as I can squeeze in.
petulant pillock
curmudgeon with a cudgel
bombastic buffoon.
he felt deleted
like a worn-out expletive
declined, like a noun.
Photos: Waiting for the Drop
high fives and fist bumps
haircuts just like Eric Trump’s
brodacious banter
I
cherry blossoms bloom
well-dressed ladies from Beijing
pose with hand on hip
II
cherry blossoms bloom
the air is sticky with greed
houses, for sale, sold.
III
cherry blossoms bloom
the wrecking ball’s lazy swing
petals, debris, spring.
These 3 poems appeared separately in Spring of last year, I thought they worth assembling together. They are probably the only poems ever written about cherry blossoms and the Vancouver Real Estate Market.
an evening of
syllable counts and cured meats
pure haikuterie.
I
No free verse today
I’m taking my doggerel
for a long, long walk.
II
San Diego Zoo
a pink-arsed baboon presents
it’s late afternoon.
we can not
decide if
we are blessed
or damaged.
The night howls, fog curls
a thin cloud bisects the moon
at the graveyards’ edge
an abandoned well
from the bottom of that well
Thom Yorke cries for help.
The dead wake slowly
grey fists punch through mounds of earth
Thom Yorke cries for help.
Autumn
I
a clear day in fall
a call from the governor
a pardon granted.
II
trees leaking colour
like a paint store catalogue
et tu, chlorophyll?
This poem has formed and re-formed since I started this blog, I think this is the last re-incarnation.
Photo: Chlorophyll molecule (Chlorophyll-a-3D-vdw, licensed under public domain)
Oh Donald is it
policy or is it just
pandermonium.
This is the first in a series of poems called “Poems with titles longer than the poem itself.”
Well, after a brief diversion into haikuland, April – Month of Slim returns with the first sighting of slimverse outside of North America (well, actually, outside of this blog) and it comes from Stiofan O’Broin (over in Ireland/ Italy ?) who shows a complete mastery of the form in his first attempt! Here it is:
Slimverse
a slimverse
is an odd
metrical
exercise.
On closer examination, this is actually a poem in which the poem is the subject of the poem itself, a kind of poetic selfie. It’s like writing a sonnet about a sonnet, or a haiku about a haiku. For example:
Haiku
haiku: seventeen
ineffable syllables
five, seven and five.
I think we’ll call it a“ Narcissus”.
Here’s a vaguely related blast from the past from Slim:
The Pre-Selfie Years (a slimverse)
fifteen years
ago, no
one could spell
narcissist.
(Be sure to check out Stiofan’s blog, it’s an eclectic mix of poetry, Irish politics and music and always interesting.).
cherry blossoms bloom
the air is sticky with greed
houses, for sale, sold.
cherry blossoms bloom
well-dressed ladies from Beijing
pose with hand on hip
Last year Slim entered 2 haikus in the Mountmellick Haiku Festival. He finished 9th and 10th in the non-starter category. See blog post “Poet’s Corner 2”.
Since then he has learnt how to count syllables and has made some revisions.
Let’s not dwell on what might have been.
Haiku 9
pink cherry blossoms
resting on a red car hood
petal to metal.
Haiku 10
San Diego Zoo
a large baboon bends over
it’s late afternoon.
Our resident poet, Slim Volume, has just returned from the Mountmellick Haiku Festival where he finished 9th and 10th in the non-starter category with the following haikus:
Haiku 9
Cherry blossoms
Pink on my hood
Petal to metal
Haiku 10
San Diego Zoo
Baboon bending over
Late afternoon
Congratulations, Slim.
