Haiku "Pops"

The haiku poems below have been crafted in discreet little moments throughout my adult life. So many more seemed to have happened, yet these are just a few that were written down.

It's a refreshing practice in beauty to reflect on natural phenomena, and craft them in orderly taste. A haiku can contain a cosmos, a complete and uncanny world view grounded in an ordinary thing of the moment. Thus the little things in life can carry depths of meaning, and lofty meaning: this practice of writing is thus a practice of ascertaining the truth of the way things are, tathata.

Haiku – a traditional literary form of Japan – employs metaphor, metonymy, and three-fold logics in three lines of plain speech to make a poem. Haiku highlights a direct experience, an emotion, and/or an image in a play between the minute particular and the cosmos at-large. English haiku similarly "pops" in three lines, but without as much technicality in syllable counts.

Our Latest Pops

more desolate locale
more authentic roadside jewelry stand
miracles in the Res

wives go dancing on whisky row
husbands at home watch horror films
kids miss out on their phones

tesla coil buzzes by gong fu tea
electrifying the senses
state transition gravity

two couples go for some authentic Thai
a natural wonder of strip mall America
5 tastes balance by royal decree

cellular carrier store town blues
loyalty's as low my shoes
what's news
biker dude in leather squeezed of ev'ry penny bikes some more to settle the score
high mountain cellular carrier store town blues

Assorted Pop Haiku

dripping spring snow
Five petals' promise
lovers exchange rings

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Winter solstice sun
wand’ring lovers orbit
Golden eagles court

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Blazing sun high
above the pounding thunderstorm
Soaks to the marrow

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Bodhidharma's eyelids
tea leaves
writ onto the wall of mind

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Gilded icon on shrine
bright but not quite as lovely as
Your own sunburnt face

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the ripe old lady
not afraid to be crazy
sings along to every song

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yin and yang chi gong
the unification of heaven and earth
time for a smoke

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special needs school trip
we notice what we notice
Hot and steamy green horse droppings

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Coyote comes from Taos
A Stihl chainsaw
A tale of Tibetans

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varmint prairie dogs
wagging tails, barking
turds all over the place

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Five families
& fertile ground
make a colony

~~~

soothing sanskṛt
mantra in the breeze
still the dogs distress

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In the bare ash tree
a hungry "ka"
stark juvenile crow

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Crazy attracts
cool creekwater laps
four feet

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Missed the vibe
arriving at the party
two hours late

~~~

late-night scholarship
wake up in the morning
dream of footnotes

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map as boundary
mind map of
what's beyond

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Firehouse coffee mugs
caffeine morning sunshine
trippin over shorlines

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sunny day after
Cold Mountain sleet
raven seeks its booty

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every time
tossouts pass the gate
wolfdog waits and wishes

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knife in the dishwater
now it hurts to
typewriter

~~~

Christmas time
The joy in multiplying
gifts of Wise Men

~~~

no direction
is full moon possible
without Mooning Buddha

~~~

Warning!
Do not give money to monks
At Highline or Central Parks

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If you see something
Say: there's a tear in your crotch
punk rock China girl

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Crystalline reliquary
the sun, even the clouds
pay homage

~~~

spring thunder
snow and sunny yonder
Colorado weather

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re-imagine the all
rainbows and unicorns
helium farts

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Gazing from earth
Ravens' unkindness in heaven
leaves no wake

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'Midst a mass of gnostic flame
emergency while I'm away
"The tipi is on fire!"

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stiff straw hat
bearded chubby smile
Xtra large Texas style

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Early morning graphs & charts
RH, LAL, Haines
What's he saying?

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Old timer spectacled
wide brim hat
Peers across a room of men

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Donaghy of kings
Highland stock of man
Plaid runs through his beard

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kettle bell get-ups
cleans and presses
coiled, ready to go

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Hundred syllables, hundreds round
Last rites for the baby mountain mouse
buried under rosebush out back

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prayer hands
Powerful Witness
big ol' beaming perma-grin