f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

 selections from driveway from childhood,

  by Pamela Miller Ness  (Small Poetry Press, Concord, CA, 1997) 

 

small gallopping feet

on a collision course:

forehead & corner

 

midsummer evening

mother’s two-syllable whistle

                          ends our play

 

 

first love

in the summer gazebo . . .

little brother won’t leave

 

“ness-driveway gray”   to order see. 

 

• 
  
  by dagosan:

repose . . .

the tenant below
smokes in bed

[dag, 06-11-04] 

 . . . . . .  edge of light 

 The Red Moon Anthology 2003

crickets

the pulse in a hollow

of her neck

by Tom Painting

 

 

first date

    letting her

put snow down my neck

by Michael Dylan Welch

 

 

bird song —

morning round

of medicine

by Alice Frampton

 

late night pee

the dog runs to the edge

of light

by Jim Kacian

 

 from edge of light: The Red Moon Anthology

of English-Language Haiku 2003 (Red Moon Press, 2004,

edited by Jim Kacian, and the Red Moon Editorial Staff)

 

• 
  
  by dagosan:

full tummies
empty bladders
. . . not for long

[dag, 06-10-04] 

 

I just devoured one of the most delightful novels I’ll ever read: Haiku Guy 

(2000, Red Moon Press) by David G. Lanoue.  You can read the first two chapters here. 

This slim volume entertains and captivates, while wistfully teaching “about love,

poetry and just what it all might mean.”  Along the way, it weaves in dozens of 

one-breath poems that will make haiku afficionados smile, and turn the haiku-illiterate

into haiku addicts.

For example:

   a moonlit gourmet —

              cat

    in the garbage

 

 

  waterfall smash, crash!

   then down the canyon

            laughing

 

    getting drunk

       on my arm

the tavern mosquitos

 

“haiku guy gray”  I’ll be posting more haiku from the novel, soon, and ordering

the sequel: The Laughing Buddha (2004, Red Moon Press)

 

Poet Michael McClintock left an excellent review of Haiku Guy at Amazon.com here’s an excerpt:

“Past, present, and future intermingle in a joyful, convincing chaos that creates its own inevitable order and comfortable familiarity. Lanoue thrusts his characters into a Buddha-dream world of random events and meetings, misdirection, hopeless desire and grasping, at the center of which we find the great poet Cup-of-Tea (Kobayashi Issa) in his later years, living in Kashiwabara village.

 

“Seeking the Master’s guidance comes the clueless and desperate wannabe village poet, Buck-Teeth. Out of their meeting Lanoue weaves a narrative fabric colored by Old Japan and haiku’s literary history, real and imagined, with new threads added from the bars, cafes and shrines of New Orleans’ dingy and holy Bourbon Street. Here is a tale that conveys with memorable force a comic vision of the creative process.”

p.s.  To pique the interest of my webloggy Fool friend, as well as the Underground posse, and the N.O. techno-lawyer, let me note that there’s a hermit-Fool in this haiku tale.  To the surprise of all, the rich and powerful Lord Kaga, once surrounded by an army of yes-men and possessed of all the newest gadgets of the day, gives it all up to live as a hermit.  You’ll have to read the book to find out why (hint: there’s a woman and a tattoo involved).

 

• 
  
  by dagosan:

may I
please turn the page?
fly on my thumb

        [dag, 06-09-04] 

          mid-day lull

the whole of the garden

         one bee loud

 

from Presents of Mind, haiku and illustrations by Jim Kacian

(Katsura/Red Moon Press, 1996).

• 
  
  
  

  by dagosan:

shiver –
aging draft dodger
turns off the fan

        [dag, 06-08-04] 

• 
  
  by Pamela Miller Ness. . . . 
  
  
• 
  
  from pegging the wind: The Red Moon Anthology of  English-Language Haiku 2002  (Red Moon Press; edited by Jim Kacian & the Red Moon Editorial Bd). 

another hot day

an old man scratches

his lottery ticket

 

 

 

in remission —

bidding high

at the auction sale 

 

• 
  
  “uvcbgb neg”
  
  
• 
  
  by dagosan:

        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

after all these years

ankle deep

in the other ocean

 

daybreak

shifting his sack of cans

shoulder to shoulder

 

spring green

on the scaffold a workman

swinging his feet

amela Miller Ness has honored us with the first of many visits.

Hers is one of the “emerging voices” featured in A New Resonance 2 (2001); the

editors note that Pamela explores tribulation, consolation and patience in her

quietly powerful haiku.  She lives and teaches English in NYC, and is the

newletter editor for the Haiku Society of America.

• 
  
  by dagosan:

interlopers
tour my old house
the owner and I

        [dag, 06-06-04] 

  Starting today, there will be a continuing Tea Party with Issa in our Sidebar. 

Issa is one of the four most venerated poets of classic Japanese haiku.  Born Kobayashi Yatar

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