haiku-usa

A blog devoted mainly to haiku and senryu and to thoughts about, and inspired by, haiku and senryu.

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Location: New York, New York

Haiku is to poetry as espresso is to coffee.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

sun

sun on the pond
the spread of a drake's wings
after mating

First published in Ambrosia.

Witnessed in Hyde Park, London, England. I thought the drake's bragging was extremely un-English. Okay, he got lucky, but still . . .


Saturday, June 26, 2010

flicker

moon shadows
the flicker
of a smile

Posted at the Haiku Bandit's blog.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

memory

autumn memory
of those walks with my father–
so many silences

Second place, Caribbean Kigo Kukai, June 2010

Sunday, June 20, 2010

pater

pater noster
intoned by the priest . . .
Jesus called Him Dad

Posted at Gillena's blog as a comment. "Pater Noster" is Latin for "Our Father," the first words of the Lord's Prayer. Jesus used the Aramaic "abba," which is best translated as "dad," "daddy," etc., rather than the more formal "father."

Happy Father's Day to all dads, granddads, stepdads, and all other kinds of dads out there.

slick 6

slick slicker slickest
an apology
for the apology*

the CEO
at the yacht races
first day off in weeks**

*Rep. Barton (R-Texas), under pressure from party leaders, apologized for referring to the settlement worked out by President Obama as a "shakedown" and retracted the apology he had offered to British Petroleum. Ironically, a group consisting of 114 Republican members of Congress had denounced the settlement just one day before, also calling it a "shakedown." They have neither apologized nor retracted.

**Well, he said he would like his life back. It's other people's lives he doesn't care about. (See earlier "slick" posts.)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

"Female Viagra," Part 2

Remember flibanserin? (See earlier "female viagra" post)

"On Sexual Desire Drug for Women, F. D. A. Panel Says More Study Is Needed," NY Times, 19 June 2010

rephrasing the question:
what do women want
to want?

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

small

small town
the waitress asks me
where I'm headed

First published in Modern Haiku

Sunday, June 13, 2010

bounce

the way
the ball bounces
U! S! A!

I posted this at Gillena's blog a few minutes ago.

butterfly

butterfly
how long will you
remember me

First published in Acorn

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

skinny

skinny dipping–
her cute names
for everything

First published in Modern Haiku

Sunday, June 06, 2010

cool

cool breeze
moonlight
rippling my way

Shiki kukai, May 2010. Assigned topic: "Peace"

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

apology, sort of

Regular visitors to this blog will recognize that the outburst of topical comments in the last five posts is uncharacteristic. But sometimes . . .

government (slick 5 )

government
of the people
by the people
for the people
what's the problem?*

*"Government is the problem." (President Ronald Reagan and countless others since. Lines 2-4 are a direct quotation from the Gettysburg Address of President Abraham Lincoln, who thought it was worth fighting a war to assure that this government should not perish from the earth.)


slick 4

British Petroleum
what part of Kentucky
are they from?*

The Republican candidate for the US Senate from Kentucky has characterized presidential criticism of British Petroleum as "un-American."


slick 3

See "slick" and "slick 2" below

the corporation
is a person–*
what's the CEO?

*Corporate personhood is an ancient legal fiction given a peculiar twist in American law, following a headnote to the Supreme Court's decision in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. This headnote (not, in fact, the Supreme Court decision itself) was established as precedent in Pembina Consolidated Mining and Milling Co. v. Pennsylvania.

This precedent figured in a recent Supreme Court decision–overthrowing restrictions on campaign spending by corporations–which combines the fiction of corporate personhood with the fiction that money is speech.

It has been pointed out that, if the corporation were indeed a person, it would be a psychopath.

slick 2

dead workers
the CEO wants
his life back

BP CEO Tony Hayward: ‘I’d Like My Life Back’
(Think Progress) - The millionaire CEO of foreign oil giant BP, Tony Hayward, is upset at the inconvenience caused to him by his company’s devastation of the Gulf of Mexico. BP’s offshore drilling explosion claimed 11 lives on April 20, and has since spewed 20 to 100 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. At least 491 birds, 227 turtles and 27 mammals, including dolphins, have been found dead. On Sunday, immediately after apologizing, Hayward then complained about the effect of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on his personal life, saying “I would like my life back.“

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

slick

I posted this as a comment at Juliet's blog. You'll recognize the news story that inspired it.

slick
pumping up
the PR

fishing

fishing alone
I cast a thought
on the stream

Second place, Shiki Kukai May 2010. Kigo: "fishing."

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