What is it?
What is life's Disgrace?
Is it the trampling of life's race?
or is it the existence of this greedy race?
Fighting and dying for power and greed.
Thinking only of our personal needs.
Saying greed is your only disgrace.
Would be lying to your own face.
--*--
Haiku:
A Bunny brings Eggs
He arose from eternal rest
Which is believable?
--*--
LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
Someday,
our promise met,
we'll phone home from business
trips to steal the light fantastic
for sale on our dark Earth.
The harvesting
of God.
--*--
MILK
She thinks
milk expires
on a specific date.
But, like love to indifference,
it decomposes some
each day as it
sours.
--*--
Agnostic
I envy those who in their blissful sleep
Benignly in somniferous repose
Know not the vacant spaces of this silent keep
Where wonders he of infinite "suppose".
--*--
THE RED CONVERTIBLE
Streetlight trails the wind,
red shadows twirl a vortex.
A night out of breath.
--*--
THE EXECUTIONER
I wish you could have read the poem
I just erased.
It was all about perfection
and impermanence,
about building elaborate sand gardens
then welcoming the first windy day.
I was at the height of my powers when I wrote it,
but felt the storm coming
even as I placed the final ellipsis ...
I'm really going to miss it.
--*--
trees
oak
big, green,
climb, hide, play
worried if i fall
--*--
Cruel World
I know I may have been here
for just a short while
but now I am happy
because now I can smile
smile because I am gone
from such a cruel place
a place where people are too consumed
with hatred and race
I've had a lot of friends come and go
but my true friends will always know
know that I was never
easy to satisfy
so to them I say
a good, good-bye
--*--
Stubbåker, snöfläck
skott ekar, skall i kylan
harstek på bordet
Johan Kristiansson
--*--
In a game of chess
two players battleing out
there are many rules
black or white is the winner
check-mate is the objective
--*--
SUNSET
Amid appropriate colors
the big
orange
coin
deposits itself
in the hogback,
banking against
a bright
tomorrow.
by Larry Kimmel
--*--
Afterwards...
Thundering heartbeats
pounding with authority
empasise the
seclusive desire
to explore deeper
into reposive slumber
by enhancing
the physical
momentum
tenfold.
Responding to
unlimited satisfaction
gospel silence is achieved
and all entities within
journey forth
into the escapade of
now.
--*--
Coltrane Lovers
On a note of misdirection,
dispersed on smoky light,
swirled in scotch and sweet deception,
his song concludes our night.
--*--
Sexual Alchemy
A volatile mix they make,
the imp and true desire,
but there are steps I cannot take,
some tastes I can't acquire.
I'd like to understand this fact--
that offers, plain and clear,
repel as chemicals react,
with regret always so near.
--*--
Lumpy's Good Fortune
A lumpy baby squats to cry,
as mom arranges life.
A lumpy businessman stands by,
amazed that she's his wife.
--*--
Haiku from second graders:
Clouds cover the sky.
Feather clouds cover the
world.
The sky covers me.
----------------------------Matthew, age 7.
Clouds, clouds, where are you?
Clouds bring rain to
you and me.
Clouds, clouds, I love you.
----------------------------Robert, age 7.
Clouds are a blanket
Made of thick, creamy sky
fog.
And a change is here.
-----------------------------Heidi, age 7.
--*--
Sing me Muse
and through me
tell the story
of that man skilled
in all ways of contending
the wanderer harried
for years on end
after he plundered
the stronghold
on that proud height
of Troy
He saw the townlands
and learned the minds of many distant men
and weathered many bitter nights and days at sea
--- Homer
Can you name him?
--*--
THREE ANONYMOUS KOREAN SIJO
Mind, I have a question for you--how is it you stay so
young?
As the years pile up on my body, you too should
grow old.
Oh, if I followed your lead, Mind, I would be
run out of town.
My body, in its withering, may become a lovely
swallow.
Under the eaves of my loved one's home I'll build
my nest of twigs.
After dusk I'll fly aloft and glide
gently to his side.
See, mirror, here's my face again, soft as a rose's
petal.
Should I surprise him tonight, show up like a
painted lady?
How can he make it through the day, not
seeing me as you do?
....Adaptations by Larry Gross, SIJO WEST #1, Spring 1996