Blog Archives
Water or Chardonnay: A Weird Little Haibun
When the choice of drink is water or chardonnay, I usually take water. I don’t want to end up in some faraway place, sleeping under a bridge, and wonder how I got there. Nobody’s going to rescue me from my own stupidity. If someone asks why I prefer to eat by candlelight, I say, “It’s fine to dine in the dark, but the last time I tried that, I nearly ate my finger, mistaking it for a French fry. Don’t you think it’s important to be safe rather than sorry?”
Yellow butterfly,
will you meet me on the path
to the mountaintop?
More The Whirligig #257
More Writers’ Pantry #11 at Poets and Storytellers United
Kiss a Rock: Some Sunday Silliness
Kiss a rock, go to sleep
While the candles drip and weep.
Eat some bread, flash a smile
At the hungry crocodile.
Throw away that plastic wrapper,
Dream of dolphins and red snapper.
Promise not to cut my braid;
Ring the doorbell, tell the maid
Someone’s on the porch with leaves
Gathered from beneath the eaves.
Poem © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #169
More Poetry Pantry #410 at Poets United
Kick the Song
Fishing boat, Puerto Nuevo, Baja California Norte, México
Kick the song ahead of you,
kick it into the mist and spume,
even though you are shaking,
and three women spinning yarn
are laughing at you.
Kick the song of ruin,
kick it over the boat
where the grey-headed vagrant
slips into sleep
under the spell of opioids.
Kick the song out of the way,
so that no one ever hears it again.
Do not be afraid.
Kick.
Kick.
Kick.
More Sunday’s Whirligig #128
More Poetry Pantry #370 at Poets United
Savage Tales
Seedpod of the nightshade, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
~~ 1 ~~
a runty spring lamb
falls prey to two hungry wolves—
the blood-spattered snow
~~ 2 ~~
pressed close together
two siblings tremble with fear—
first storm of winter
~~ 3 ~~
bitter winter’s night—
she prowls about the hallways
unable to sleep
~~ 4 ~~
night-blooming jasmine—
inhaling the haunting scent
as we sip our tea
~~ 5 ~~
winter afternoon—
the first snowflakes remind her
of life’s brevity
Haiku © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Macro Monday 2
More Sunday’s Whirligig #93
More Poetry Pantry #335 at Poets United
Loss
Remains of a dead Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis), Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Southern California
wilderness pilgrim
weeping for the willow’s loss—
interrupted sleep
Text and photo © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Haiku Horizons: “Sleep”
More Carpe Diem: “Weeping Willow”
Stripping Flesh from Bones
~~ 1 ~~
What am I to do
with this blank sheet of paper
and an empty pen?
~~ 2 ~~
A dream at midnight—
someone mumbling Basho’s name
imitates a frog.
~~ 3 ~~
three clay pots—
white chrysanthemums
in full bloom
~~ 4 ~~
three stolen plums
stuffed in his left pocket
to eat later
~~ 5 ~~
wild roses
blooming on roadsides
in Georgia
~~ 6 ~~
She speaks in tongues
that no one understands
except her god.
~~ 7 ~~
lying down to sleep
in different beds each night—
her long loneliness
~~ 8 ~~
powers of darkness
gathering near the hedgerow
disguised as egrets
~~ 9 ~~
As the signpost burns,
I take off my tattered shoes
to walk barefoot home.
~~ 10 ~~
at my journey’s end
laying down my faithful staff
to take up a cross
~~ 11 ~~
stripping flesh from bones
through every kind of weather—
Dr. Death at work
~~ 12 ~~
Beginnings are hard—
ask the chick trapped in the shell
or the child in school.
© 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #244
More The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 204
Magical Mystical Teacher 