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

As I demonstrated poetically yesterday at dagosan’s haiku diary, I am not quite filled with holiday cheer yet, as December continues to speed by and my Holiday To Do List simply grows and grows. It’s not helping my mood that I’ve been trying to produce a post [which I hope to complete by this evening] about the riskless $42 million legal fee charged by Graubard Miller to the aged widow of the Lawrence real estate fortune (and have seen the mostly uninspiring reaction of the blawgiverse; two exceptions here and here).

married a decade
she hides
the mistletoe

married a decade
he buys new mistletoe
for the office

……………………. by dagosan

After reading that three Graubard attorneys just went over and asked Alice Lawrence for a large bonus/gift in 1998 (and got $5 million), I decided to try a little self-help of my own. So, I wrote last night to Prof. Hilary Tann, who works down the street at Union College, asking whether she had any holiday haiku or senryu I could share here at f/k/a. To my delight, the Welsh-born music composer quickly wrote back with four poems, and after searching deeper into her haikai oeuvre sent two more this morning. So, while procrastinating and stopping for lunch, I also get to share a few of Hilary’s holi-ku with you:

Christmas lights
my eye is drawn
to the house with none

red bows decorate
the ‘Closed for the Season’
sign

Christmas service
the old carols
with no back-beat

………………………………………….. by Hilary Tann

I’m not sure what I’m going to do about Mrs. Lawrence’s plight, or my own anemic holiday spirits, but I am grateful to Professor Hilary for helping me get a little farther down the road to a Happy Holiday Season. As we’ve been noting all week, you might try our Christmas Season Haiku page.

wrapping and
packing–
she pastes on a smile

………………………………………. by dagosan

p.s. If you missed the earlier version of the PBS special on Brain Fitness this week (via Stephanie at Idealawg), you might want to check your local schedule right now to see if it is being rebroadcast this afternoon (as it is at 1 PM here in the NY Capital Region). I’ll be trying to multi-task, writing a few Christmas cards while learning about brain fitness.