Haiku Journal / Share Your Haiku Here

[Tinker]

Haiku Journal 2017 jvg #30

thin sticks sparkle  
bottle rockets fire the night
Happy 4th!

#31

corn drips with butter
steak and shrimp on the grill
family BBQ
 

[Tinker]

Haiku Journal 2017 jvg #32

calendar marked
to set time and day
chemo next

[Tinker]

Haiku Journal 2017 jvg #33

pathology
report lymph nodes clear
chemo scratched
 

[Tinker]

Haiku Journal 2017 jvg #34
Ooops, I guess it isn't over until it is over.  

not over yet, more tests

tumor too large to ignore

chemo still in mix

[Tinker]

Haiku Journal 2017 jvg #35

Harnessing your Muse Sunday tinkering with color.

lush Spring blades of grass
soft needles from Redwood boughs
my granddaughter's eyes

#36

royal Iris bloom
penitent vestments of Lent
taste of Burgundy

#37
tang of citrus orbs
tonight sunset's grand glory
Donald Trump's hair 

#38
laughing summer skies
deep oceans and wide rivers
mournful song   

#39
love's chosen flower,
vampire's favorite flavor
soft kissable lips
                          ~~jvg

[Tinker]

Haiku Journal 2017 jvg  #40

she sits at her desk
surrounded by old bound books
and crumpled pages

[Tinker]

Haiku Journal 2017 jvg #41

Mornings remind me
Of her songs and her laughter.
My guess, she still sings

[Tinker]

Places I've never been that I would love to see. Alaska, Zimbabwe is Shona for house of stone

2017 Haiku Journal jvg  
#43

deck rocks below me
blue shadowed iceberg looms
camera clicks

#44

Zambezi cascades
into smoke that thunders
house of stone gateway

[Tinker]

Haiku Journal 2017 #47

scent of Lavender
clings to my finger tips
Gram smiles at me
                          ~~jvg

[Tinker]

2017 #50

August sun sets,
leaves its summer heat behind
moon rises with wink 
                   ~~jvg

[Tinker]

2017 #51

today sweet Daisy  
closed her blue eyes and died
silence hurts my ears
                         ~~jvg

 

[Tinker]

2017 #52

onco test score two
out of one hundred, best news
no chemo, next step nuked
                      ~~jvg     

[Tinker]

2017  jvg #54

slipped in tub today
left hand probably broken
ER imminent 

jvg #55

striking each letter
using uninjured right hand
left hand useless

 

 

[Tinker]

2017  jvg   #56

three broken hand bones
and two broken foot bone
Beware of showers!

This stupid song keeps going through my head
"them bones, them bones, then dry bones
them bones, them bones, then dry bones
them bones, them bones, then dry bones
Now hear the word of the Lord"

[Tinker]

2017 jvg #58

four new blue dots
tattooed on chest to target
daily nuke treatments

 

[Tinker]

2017   jvg  #59

icy cold room
masked faces loom
hand gets three new screws

[Tinker]

Monday Dec 18 set goal for the week to write a haiku a day. This is my first.
2017  jvg  #60

this week's goals written
daily haiku almost done
morning sun warms me
 

[Tinker]

2017 jvg

just realized I didn't complete my medical journey in haiku.  After 6 weeks of daily radiation I'm all done.  
#61
monster machine moans
and clanks as it moves over
my motionless frame

#62
naked on table
techs hide behind lead wall
nuked daily

#63
no more laser burns 
pink shrug worn for last time
graduation gown 

 

 

[Tinker]

#64

child of faith swaddled
with love, lies in a manger
hope is born again

[Tinker]

I set a goal of 1 haiku a day for the week of Dec 18

Today  Tuesday, Dec 19, 2017

#64  
 white screen is blank
words for haiku evaporate
goal in jeopardy
                ~~jvg

[Tinker]

Today Wednesday Dec 20, 2017

#65
from the winter sky
a cacophony of rain
I dance in rhythm
              ~~jvg
 

[Tinker]

Today, Thursday Dec 21, 2017

#66
this December day
begins chilled, stilled and silent
I watch a hawk glide
                        ~~jvg

[Tinker]

Today, Friday Dec 22, 2017

#67
         Solstice sundown
         paints the December sky
         with splash of Merlot
                              ~~jvg

[Tinker]

2018  Spring Haiku

#1
too wet to mow,
Spring grass reaches my knees,
wild poppies too

#2.
rain gives permission
for pregnant buds to blossom,
birthing of Spring

#3
push of tulip bulbs
quicken to bloom in late March,
earth's fertile prelude

#4
in dawn's stillness,
flutter of butterfly wings
is only sound

#5
pond frogs go silent
with splash of fallen branch,
the trees chatter

#6
trees speak their troubles
in tones so low, the wind stops,
woodpecker marks time

#7
I stop to listen
to the voice of the West Wind,
it sings ocean songs

~~Judi Van Gorder

[Tinker]

2018  Holy Thursday Tanka

#4

In an upper room,
twelve gather at His table.
He washes their feet
then breaks bread and shares a cup
and asks to be remembered.

One will be His rock
upon which He will build His church.
One will turn his back,
choose coin over faithfulness.
Our Lord betrayed by a kiss.
                   ~~~jvg

[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

[Tinker]

2020 #3

winter's willow branch
bends in the wind with grace
old oak limb snaps
                          ~~jvg

[jakecaller]

two cats 

 

two cats walking by

one black one one yellow one 

both alien creatures 

 

birds flying away

 

birds flying away

fleeing the wild cats about 

the world peace forrest

 

the world peace forrest

 

the world peace forrest

passes by my apartment 

every day I walk it 

 

deer in the park 

 

I seldom see the deer

that live in the park near me 

they are just too shy

 

never saw the wild pig

 

I never saw the wild 

Pig that lives in the woods

just heard him oinking 

what dreams may come 

 

Once my dreams came true

as she walked out of them then

that day life began 

8 years of dreams

 

Dreaming her eight years

one day she really appeared

walked off a bus and into life

coffee madness

 

every morning coffee madness

consumes me and overwhelms me 

one day coffee madness 

 

the Impeachment Trial

 

the impeachment  trial

overwhelms me with dread

are we near the end 

 korean charcoal saunas

 

korean charcoal 

saunas are amazing

cure for everything 

[Tinker]

2020 #4

words painted
with my unique brush
speak my name
                            ~~jvg