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Four Haiku with Tea
1.
This hair in my tea—
how can I not dislike it?
Spring’s first misfortune…
2.
These shaded flowers
seem to want to climb the wall,
eager for more light.
3.
O sorrowful moss,
surely you know that your hurt
has drawn me to you.
4.
When autumn arrives,
meet me in the swirling leaves
near the maple tree.
More The Whirligig #318
More Writers’ Pantry #70 at Poets and Storytellers United
Haibun: Imagine
Imagine that you can go back in time to when you first loved the sound of rain in the night, or when you first identified the singing of the thrush. I know what you’re thinking: I’ll always be stuck in the here-and-now. But you don’t have to be. Imagine!
In the autumn woods
a tree stump becomes a throne
for an aging queen.
More The Whirligig #289
More Haiku My Heart at Recuerda Mi Corazon
More Writers’ Pantry #43 at Poets and Storytellers United
Anything Is Possible: A Haibun
If I could touch the sound of a dove with my fingertips, I would. But my hopes are dashed; the little songster flees as I draw near. The dove calls again. Surely this time! Stealthily I move forward, but a dry leaf crackles underfoot. Hush now, I say to myself, you’re making too much noise; surely she hears you. But, no, there on a branch of the plum is the dove, and there is her song, pouring from her beak like a silver waterfall. Slowly, ever so slowly, I approach, I reach, I touch the sparkling notes. The dove does not stir, though she knows full well what I’m doing. You doubt my story? In the Age of Donald Trump, anything is possible.
An old Buddhist monk,
who never tells me his name,
visits me in dreams.
More Sunday’s Whirligig #248
More Writers’ Pantry #2 at Poets and Storytellers United
The Parting
“I know that I will miss you,” he said with a slight shrug.
“But the cat has lost its tail, there’s darkness on the rug,
And cruelty is sport for fools, of which I am one;
Better we should part this day, and let the deed be done.”
“I will not discourage you,” she said without a sigh.
“You’ve been just short of horrible in all the years gone by.
You thought that I was fragile, you thought I was a toad,
But I withstood your onslaughts—now go, and hit the road!”
Poem © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #194
One thing I ask
One thing I ask:
that I might know true love
before I have no strength,
and the undertaker measures
how long I am, my length,
for the coffin he’s prepared,
from which my waxen face
will stare at those who pass.
Is this desire wrong?
Am I a fool to ask?
It makes me rich to think of love—
thus, I write my song.
More Sunday’s Whirligig #149
More Poetry Pantry #391 at Poets United
One More Whirl with Basho
Each haiku or senryu begins with a phrase culled from Basho: The Complete Haiku.
~~ 1 ~~
the lingering moon
tests my patience this evening—
my room is too small
~~ 2 ~~
in a rice paddy
your words coming to fullness
with the harvest moon
~~ 3 ~~
fading temple bell
the seeker’s anxiety
slips into silence
~~ 4 ~~
the smell of young grass
untainted by blood and gore
this April morning
~~ 5 ~~
four gates and four sects
one of them the hospital
at the ocean’s edge
~~ 6 ~~
to the wooden clogs
in the center of the court
setting up a shrine
~~ 7 ~~
still served with flowers
rosettes of orange Jell-O
blooming in my bowl
~~ 8 ~~
how pleasurable
holding three words on my tongue
until they mingle
~~ 9 ~~
the lay-monk’s thinness—
we know he won’t be with us
after the first frost
~~ 10 ~~
snow-covered mountains
sharing a meal together
fifty miles away
~~ 11 ~~
first wintry shower—
fluff from shattered milkweed pods
drifting from the north
~~ 12 ~~
an early winter
beggars pester passersby
for a few spare coins
© 2014 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #218
More The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 178
