Haiku Journal / Share Your Haiku Here

[Tinker]

Good Friday  Suffering 

#7
hollow eyes
in skeleton face
look out through wire fence

#8
starving bald baby
with bloated belly and skin sores 
cries with dry tears

#9
woven into crown
thorns longer than my thumb
pressed into His head

#10
eight inch spikes
hammered through His palms and feet
to a wooden cross

#11
memories wiped clean
trapped in alien body
loved ones lost

                    ~~jvg 
 
 

[Tinker]

I couldn't resist, here are 2 of my own "the short night--" haikus.  

#5
"the short night--"
the sound of soft snores
from his room
         ~~ jvg

#6
"the short night--"
the moon is hiding
the stars make no sound
          ~~jvg
 

The haiku  below are not meant to be read as one poem but 11 different poems written by Yosa Buson in the 18th century all beginning with " the short night".   Of course these are translations from the original Japanese and I don't know who did the translation. My favorite of the bunch is the very first one.
11 haiku   by Yosa Buson (1716-1783), Japanese Poet, all beginning with the line "the short night--".

the short night--
on the hairy caterpillar
beads of dew.

the short night--
patrolmen
washing in the river.

The short night--
bubbles of crab froth
among the river reeds.

the short night--
a broom thrown away
on the beach.

the short night--
the Oi River
has sunk two feet.

the short night--
on the outskirts of the village
a small shop opening.

the short night--
broken, in the shallows,
a crescent moon.

the short night--
the peony
has opened.

the short night--
waves beating in,
an abandoned fire.

the short night--
near the pillow
a screen turning silver.

the short night--
shallow footprints
on the beach at Yui.

 

[Tinker]

2018 Journal  #23

post knee surgery
blood and drugs drip through IV
bed  confinement
                      ~~jvg

Prompt: Confinement   Form: Haiku   for Poetry Bingo

[Tinker]

2018 Journal
#32

3 AM Pacific
computer screen awake
fingers on keyboard
                   ~jvg

#33

heavy eye lids blink
no more words for haiku
good night
                   ~jvg

[Tinker]

#35

softly dawn opens
on an old silent milk barn
cows no longer graze
                         ~~jvg

[Tinker]

#36

garbage lid knocked free
racoon forages for scraps
early wake up call
                            ~~jvg

[Tinker]

2019 haiku journal jvg #38

rain slicked two lane road
prinked with golden fallen leaves
autumn passage
                           ~~jvg

[Tinker]

2019 #2

grey  morning sky 
sound of light rain trickles down
sunrise in hiding
                              ~~jvg

[Tinker]

2019 #8

diamond snow clusters
rest on emerald needles
sapphire blooms sparkle 
~~jvg

Companion to Rosemary on a Rare Winter Morning

[jakecaller]

Love Haiku
By
Jake Cosmos Aller

Index

1. Thursday Evening
2. Waking Up to No You
3. One Moment, One day
4. You Are My Angel
5. Saying Goodbye for Now
6. Know I Must Say I do
7. I Can Not Get Rid
8. I Float Here and There
9. You Are My Everything
10. One Night in Lithia Springs
11. One Night I Dreamt of You
12. Where do you and I
13. Dream Girl Haibun
14. Living with Pain Haibun
15. Hiking Hills of My Youth Haibun

Thursday Evening

Thursday early evening
Thinking dark thoughts only you
Can you cure these thoughts?

Waking Up to No You

Waking up to no you
Absent in my bed at night
Absent from my dreams

One Moment, One Day

One moment, one day
You walked out of my nightmares
And swept into life

You Are My Angel

You are my Angel
Sent from God up in heaven
To conquer my life

Saying Goodbye for Now

Saying goodbye now
Is the hardest thing to do
But I must do it

Know I Must Say I do

I know I must say I do
But I don't want to today
Just don't have the strength

I Can Not Get Rid

I cannot get rid
This angel haunting my soul
Seeing your face in the sky

I Float Here and There

I float here and there
Neither here nor there tonight
Tomorrow will be

You Are My Everything

You are my everything
All my hopes and dreams
Haunting my nights

One Night in Lithia Springs

One night in Lithia Springs
We soaked away our painful life
And again fell in Love

One Night I Dreamt of You

One night I dreamt of you
For seven years I dreamt of you
Until you walked into my life

Where do you and I

Where do you and I
Where do you begin to end
Where do I belong

Meeting Dream Girl

I first dreamt of Angela when I was but a lad of 17 living in Berkeley, California. It was 1974 and life seemed full of possibilities in that magical year the tail end of the fabled 60’s.nI fell asleep that fateful day in a boring Physics class. I woke up seeing the most beautiful women in the world looking at me. I was shocked and did not know what to say. She spoke to me in a strange language but somehow, I knew that someday we were to be together. I just knew that I would meet the girl in the dream. It was love at first sight. She disappeared and I fell to the floor yelling, “who are you?”

Then I started having the same dream month after month for seven long years. I had to decide where to go in the Peace Corps and chose to go to Korea because I knew she would be there. I looked for her every day knowing that someday she would walk out of my dreams and into my life.

Then one day I had the last dream. She walked off the bus in front of me. I was shocked did not know what to say and she smiled at me melting my heart away. I got her number agreed to meet the next day. She came to my class room and we talked at length.

She was madly in love with me and she had to have me. I told her I felt the same way. We married two months later. And that was the beginning of 35 years of happiness.

When I first saw you
Standing on the hot roadway
I knew life began

That was the end game
The beginning of my life with you
A journey with you

Living with Pain

Back in 1996 I had the accident that changed everything. I went jogging one morning. It was dark outside, and I thought that I knew the trail. Big mistake. I fell down a ledge hidden where the trail should have been. I shattered me heal in a million pieces. I was rushed to an ER and told that I need an emergency operation and would be bed ridden for four months.

My wife was in San Antonio at the time serving in the Army, I was in DC working for the State Department. I flew in a wheel chair to San Antonio where they proclaimed that they had to wait a week for the swelling to go down before they could operate. The Air force doctors wanted to try a new procedure – using shark cartridge as a bone supplement. The operation was a success until I quit taking antibiotics six months later. I was in DC by myself then. I went to the hospital for an unrelated thing -removal of a cist I think. But the doctors took one look at me and proclaimed that the staph had become a multiple drug resistant staph and I needed an urgent operation. The next day I had the third of 15 operations. I endured six months at Walter Reed hospital but that was in the 90’s prior to the wars of the 21^st century filled the base up. They had few customers and I got to know the doctors well.

I know pain
Intimately aware of every ache
Every pain

Ever since that day
When I went under the knife
And had the 14 operations

That saved my life
But I am not one to complain
I became one with the pain

Which I endure to this day
Knowing that I am alive
Having cheated death
Twenty times in life

Waiting for the grim reaper
To finally claim me

But that day has not come
And until then
I will endure

Hiking the Hills of My Youth

I grew up in Berkeley, California in the 60’s.  Ever since I was a youngster I would wander the hills of Berkeley hiking for hours by myself and sometimes with my friends.  I explored every nook and cranny every corner of the hills and got to know nature in its infinite beauty.

Ever since those days I have longed for the day that I could spend my days hiking and wondering the hills. Now that I am retired and living in Korea I can go for a long walk in the hills every day I want. It is not the same as the hills I grew up, no vistas of the Bay and it is in Korea to boot but most days it is sufficient as I head out early afternoon and conquer four or five miles of hills just enjoying that fact that I can still move and am still very much alive at age 62.

I grew up hiking the hills of Berkeley, California
Grew up knowing every corner of the hills
And the infinite beauty of the Bay Area

And now I find myself in a strange land
With time on my hands
I wander the hills above the airport
In Incheon Korea

And wander about here and there
Just being grateful
That I am still alive
And kicking at age 62

[Tinker]

Hi Jake,  Your post was so spaced out making it difficult to read and  it went on forever so I cleaned it up a bit.  I'm sorry but centering such a long piece screws up the spacing.   Since I was in there, I also corrected the spelling of Haibun.  

I too grew up in the hills of Berkeley and El Cerrito but in the 50s.  The thing I most remember were the lights at night reflecting up from the city.    I moved away from the East Bay in the 60s and moved about an hour and a half north.  Nothing like moving across the world. 

~~Tink

2019 #10

San Francisco lights,
sight from my bedroom window 
in East Bay hills
            ~~jvg

2019 #11

Alcatraz search light
slowly rotates round and round,
seen from my window
                ~~jvg


 

[Tinker]

2019 #13

three stringed ancient lute
plucked tones of Chinese folk song
sounds twang in my ear
                              ~~jvg

Notes:

[Tinker]

2019 #15

small brown bird watches
blossoms push through bamboo fence
impatient for Spring
                             ~~jvg

[Tinker]

2019 # 16

Spring's honeysuckle 
cascades slatted bamboo fence
small brown bird gives nod
                      ~~jvg

[Tinker]

#37

binging British show
subtitles on TV screen
language barrier
                      ~~jvg

I loved the show but would have been lost without the subtitles.

[Tinker]

2019 # 47

flame licks at dry brush
autumn leaves ignite tree tops
freeway south jammed
                 ~~Judi Van Gorder

[Tinker]

2019 #50

cat asleep
and curled into crook
of my knees
                   ~~jvg

#51

urge to buy
looms large with Santa
soon to fly
                   ~~jvg

#52

autumn sun
dries last night's
raindrops
                   ~jvg

#53

pile of papers
grow, topple and
wait
         ~~jvg

#54

to listen
to the wind's cry is to
cry with it
        ~~jvg

[Tinker]

# 55  on his 16th birthday

6 rounds
in 16 seconds, 5 shot, 3 dead
school shooter 1 of them
                    ~~jvg

[Guest]

A daffodil rattles during a storm

There are trees sprucing by it.

What beautiful nature

[Tinker]

Tsunami, welcome to the haiku journal, interesting variation of the haiku.   It is your poem so take this with a grain of salt, but haiku is 17 syllables or less.  You poem would be more haiku if pared it down a bit, something like: using your images: 

daffodil rattles
during storm
trees spruce by it

Haiku is the ultimate, "show don't tell" poem. Your last line "what beautiful nature"   is already expressed in the images.  I hope you share more in this thread.  I love haiku and I seem to be the only one writing it here. Welcome to this exclusive club.

~~Tink
 

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, Tinker said:

Tsunami, welcome to the haiku journal, interesting variation of the haiku.   It is your poem so take this with a grain of salt, but haiku is 17 syllables or less.  You poem would be more haiku if pared it down a bit, something like: using your images: 

daffodil rattles
during storm
trees spruce by it

Haiku is the ultimate, "show don't tell" poem. Your last line "what beautiful nature"   is already expressed in the images.  I hope you share more in this thread.  I love haiku and I seem to be the only one writing it here. Welcome to this exclusive club.

~~Tink
 

Thank you for the warm welcome.

[Tinker]

#57

nose to nose
with glass door in between
kitty and puppy ~~ jvg

Molly is a 4lb., 1 year old kitty, Titan is a 35lb., 3 month old Mastiff puppy