Little Eddie Markowski must have been one of those kids
who finished every test waaaay ahead of the rest of the class,
and then got an A+. As an adult, he creates mountains of
enjoyable (and even admirable) haiku and senryu faster than
your teenage son polishes off a quart of orange juice — often,
in between performing his other workplace duties. (Yes, I am
envious.)
Inspired by today’s back to school sale posting, Ed has
peppered its Comment box with a steady stream of poems.
I suggest you click here to enjoy all of them. Here’s a sampler
of his homework on this first evening of the school year:
first day of school
the bus arrives
with fresh graffitti
first day
my first apple
bruised
second day
my second apple
a granny smith
new dress code
the entire basketball team
tattooed
blackout
candlelight flickers
on her history book
by ed markowski
September 7, 2005
eddie’s homework
holding on to summer
We have had the best weather of the summer over the past week
here in Schenectady (blue skies, not too hot, not too humid). I’m
very reluctant to think about the all-too-imminent arrival of cold
weather here in Upstate New York.
So, let’s find a piece of nature and take a stroll with our Honored Guest
paul m, using his award-winning book finding the way.
summer’s end—
riding a borrowed bicycle
past the graveyard
noisy jays
blueberries twist easily
from their stems
no moon as yet
mosquitoes rising
over a field
last picnic
stones along the riverbed
give way to sand
paul m from finding the way: haiku and field notes (Press Here, 2002)
I’m sorry to say that this wonderful little book, which won the
Haiku Society of America’s 2003 Merit Award for the Best Book of
Haiku published in 2002, is currently out of print. I shall be sharing
many of its 55 haiku here at f/k/a, and will let you know when the 2nd
printing is available. The book is reviewed by Tom Clausen in Modern
Haiku.
Comments Off on holding on to summer
back to school sale (tax-free, too)
back to school
tiny ants swarm
a wad of gum
first day of term
her new school uniform
bright in the mist
by Matt Morden
from A New Resonance 2 ;
Snapshots Calendar 2001
new kindergarten class —
hiccupping sobs
from several moms
Sept. 7, 2005
update (10 P.M.): Check out eddie’s homework for more
back-to-school haiku and senryu.
potluck
Did you have a terrible dread in grammar and high school, whenever
faced with the start of the new school year? I sure did. What I’m amazed at, all these
years later, is that I still haven’t quite learned that most things are nowhere near
as terrible as we fear they will be.
Tangent (4 PM): Even I was a bit surprised, a few minutes ago, to discover
that one of our posts is the first result (out of more than 2.5 million) for
the Yahoo! Search of teach humility>. Our post discussed the inability
of some new lawyers to cooperate with and learn from experienced members
of the support staff. See They Don’t Teach Humility in Law School.
Volokh Conspiracy‘s Todd Zywicki points today to a very good article from the
liberal, student Darmouth Free Press. It’s called How the Old Left Hurts America,
by Andrew Seal, and contains many good ideas and much that is quotable. Here’s
an example:
Constant reappraisals of the faults, blunders, and purposeful wrongs of
the Bush administration, while they have an important place in political
debate, do not move us anywhere. They stagnate us as a party and they
stagnate America. Without a clear and forward-thinking attitude of ?what
more should be done?? and ?is this the best we, or they, have to offer
America?? we are not inviting America to go in any direction, we are
asking them to sit and watch the ugly spectacle.
haunted me: How can the habit of wearing hats backward still be in fashion — even
for guys over 30 — after more than two decades? In a similar vein, a couple weeks
ago, I asked a friend: What must it be like when your father figure wears pants with
the crotch situated below his knees?
