Haiku

• These haiku were written in response to these two poem fragments:

  "Life's a dance you learn as you go
  Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow.
  Don't worry 'bout what you don't know.
  Life's a dance you learn as you go."

  by John Michael Montgomerey

  and

  "Hold fast to dreams/for when dreams die
  Life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly
  Hold Fast to dreams/for when dreams go
  Life is a barren field frozen with snow"

  by Langston Hughes

  ----

  Life's a Dance/Hold on

  Holding onto things
  Can make them stale and sweaty
  What is the dream then?

  Open to the flow
  To all the ups and the downs
  Is the way to be

  Our dancing lessons
  No leader or follower
  And nothing to know

  The dance of our lives
  Is set to a tune inside
  Only we can hear

• These haiku were written as commentary to the following:

  For everything there is a season
  And a time and purpose for every matter
  under heaven:
  A time to be born, and a time to die;
  A time to plant, and a time to pluck
  up what is planted;
  A time to kill, and a time to heal;
  A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
  A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
  A time to throw away stones, and a time to
  gather stones together;
  A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from
  embracing;
  A time to seek, and a time to lose;
  A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
  A time to tear, and a time to sew;
  A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
  A time to love, and a time to hate;
  A time for war, and a time for peace.
  For Everything there is a season,
  and a time and purpose for every matter
  under heaven.

  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

  ---

  To everything, there is a season.....

  A season to heal
  To let go of old traumas
  And face each new day

  A season to love
  Why stop at just one season?
  Boundless love within

  Compassionate love
  With no thought for the seasons
  Is there such a thing?

  So it tells us wait
  For the season to suit us
  Some are stuck in place

  Instead of waiting
  for the right season to come
  Make peace with the Now

• These were written to comment on this:

  Please hear what I'm "not" saying.
  Don't be fooled by me.
  For I wear a mask, I wear a thousand masks,
  masks that I'm afraid to take off,
  and none of them are mine.
  Pretending is an art that's second nature with me,
  but don't be fooled, for god's sake, don't be fooled.
  I give you the impression that I'm secure,
  that all is sunny and coolness my game,
  That the waters calm and I'm in command,
  and that I need no one.
  But don't believe me. Please don't.
  My surface may seem smooth, but my surface is my mask,
  my ever-varying and ever-concealing mask,
  Beaneath lies no smugness, no complacence.
  Beaneath dwells the real me, in confusion, in fear, in aloneness.
  But I hide this, I don't want anybody to know it.
  I panic at the thought of my weakness and I fear being exposed.
  That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind,
  a nonchalant, sophisticated facade,
  To help me pretend, to shield me from your glance-
  a glance that KNOWS.
  But such a glance is precisely my salvation. My only salvation.
  and I know it......Provided that
  That glance is followed by acceptance, and then followed by love.
  It's the only thing that will assure me of what I can't assure myself,
  that I'm really worth something.
  

  But I don't tell you this. I don't dare. I'm afraid to.
  I'm afraid you will think less of me,
  that you will laugh, and your laugh would kill me.
  I'm afraid that deep down I'm nothing, that I'm Just no good.
  and that you will see this and reject me.
  So I play my game, my desperate, pretending game,
  with a facade of assurance on the outside,
  and a trembling child within.
  And so begins the parade of masks,
  the glittering but empty parade of masks
  And my life becomes a front.
  I idly chatter to you in the suave tones of surface talk.
  I tell you everything that's really nothing,
  and nothing of that which is everything,
  of what's crying within me.
  So when I'm going through my routine, do not be fooled
  by what I am saying.
  Please listen carefully and try to hear what I'm NOT saying
  what I'd like to be able to say,
  what, for survival, I need to say, but I can't say.

  I dislike hiding. Honestly, I do.
  I dislike the superficial game I'm playing
  the superficial, phony game.
  

  I'd really like to be genuine and spontaneous, and me,
  but you've got to help me.
  help me!
  You've got to hold out your hand,
  even when that's the last thing I seem to want or need.
  only you can wipe away from my eyes the blank stare
  of the breathing dead.
  Each time you're kind and gentle and encouraging,
  each time you try to understand because you really care,
  My heart begins to grow wings,
  very small wings, very feeble wings: But wings,
  With your sensitivity, sympathy, and your power of understanding.
  You can breathe life into me. I want you to know that.
  I want you to know how important you are to me,
  How you can be a creator of the person that is me,
  if you choose to.

  Please choose to.
  You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble,
  you alone can remove my mask,
  you alone can release me
  From my shadow-world of panic and uncertainty,
  from my lonely prison.
  

  So do not pass me by.
  please do not pass me by.
  It will not be easy for you.
  a long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.
  the nearer you approach to me
  the blinder I may strike back.
  It's irrational, but despite what the books say about man,
  I am irrational.
  I fight against the very thing that I cry out for.
  But I am told that LOVE is stronger than strong walls,
  and in this lies my hope.
  my only hope.
  Please try to beat down those walls wit firm hands,
  but with gentle hands.......for a child is very sensitive,
  and I AM a child.
  Who am I, you may wonder?
  I am someone you know very well.
  For I am every man you meet .....
  and
  I am every woman you meet.
  And I am YOU also!!!!

  -AUTHOR UNKOWN-

  ---

  Please hear what I'm "not" saying.....

  No worries for masks
  A life without masks beckons
  Inevitably

  When the time is right
  The masks fall away themselves
  Revealing the truth

  Try to see the source
  Of the masks, and that beneath
  And all will be well

  Are you sure beneath
  The mask is what you believe?
  It's a mystery

  Showing the real me
  Is becoming easier
  Too hard to hold back

  Holding masks is work
  Better spent doing Being
  Whatever that is

  The deep knowing glance
  Of one who has walked the path
  Is just what we need

  Might as well tell it:
  We carry our wounds around
  For the world to poke

  Existential fear
  Of Emptiness, just relax!
  The Tao will provide

  What do we not say
  When we are not protecting
  That which can't be hurt?

  So, what is the crying?
  And who is it that has tears?
  Really look to see

  We spend so much time
  Distracting ourselves from it
  When it's right inside

  No reason to dislike
  The game we've been taught to play
  We'll learn to be real

  All games fall away
  When the play is tedious
  It might take some time

  Real, spontaneous
  What we really are inside
  Behind all the masks

  No need to tear them
  It turns out they are empty
  Much like all of it

  Masks for protection
  For any reason at all
  Are only a tool

  When the tool is worn
  We retire it with respect
  For the ways it helped

  Wings, already there
  Just need us to take notice
  So we can stretch them

  We don't need others
  To help us to grow our wings
  Just to point them out

  Trembling behind walls
  Like some Pink Floyd character
  Even his wall fell

  Don't say "you alone"
  Unless you are saying it
  To the one inside

  Giving our freedom
  To anyone else at all
  Hides it from ourselves

  Yes, every woman
  And man needs to see the truth
  Of their existence

• This was written based on nothing else

  Hope: another crutch
  we use to avoid seeing
  reality now

• Poem with haiku inline

  > I. I walk down the street.
  > There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
  > I fall in
  > I am lost.. .I am helpless
  > It takes forever to find a way out.

  Holes are everywhere
  Falling in builds character
  And it really sucks

  > II. I walk down the same street ...
  > There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
  > I pretend I don't see it.
  > I fall in again.
  > I can't believe I am in the same place.
  > It still takes a long time to get out.

  Delusion is strong
  I choose not to see the hole
  What a good victim!

  > III. I walk down the same street ...
  > There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
  > I see it is there...
  > I still fall in.. it's a habit.
  > My eyes are open.
  > I know where I am.
  > I get out immediately.

  My eyes start to see
  Many holes, and one blindness
  That now starts to lift

  > IV. I walk down the same street ...
  > There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
  > I walk around it.
  

  The awakening
  Of wisdom in seeing holes
  Now put to good use

  > V. I walk down another street

  Should I avoid it?
  Holes exist in many streets
  Pay Attention Now!

  Maybe this street has
  Chinese, Thai or Japanese
  Avoid for a hole?

  Better to just look
  Open eyes can see the holes
  And still get the food

• These haiku are experiments with an eleven syllable form (3-5-3) that was recommended on some website.

  Haiku form
  Pithier now in
  Eleven

  Let it go
  Just let it all drop
  And then see

  I'm at peace
  Existence always
  Just one thing

  C# code
  Just like C++
  And better

  C++
  Cryptic, terse, intense
  Like real life

  Loneliness
  Avoidant hermit
  Sits at home

  New layoffs
  Coming tomorrow
  Long waiting

  Illinois
  A mere thousand miles
  Worlds away

  Lord Of Light
  Old classic sci-fi
  No movie

  Middle way
  includes the extremes
  Don't forget

  or:

  Middle way
  includes the extremes
  Remember!

  Attention!
  Waking up always
  be here now

  Zazen Is
  Just to be with that
  is enough

  In Boulder
  people are more free
  Wonderful!

  Boulder is
  so very special
  Oasis

  To relax
  is half the answer
  The Balance!

  It is said:
  wide streets, narrow minds
  Fort Collins

  To compare
  innately human
  delusion

  Sunshine day
  Boulder Pearl Street Mall
  All is well

  Zen couple
  just one month engaged
  So hopeful

  New Zen Priest
  Will your sangha grow?
  All is well

  Blue Man Group
  percussion music
  coffee smells

  Cold front passed
  Fifteen degree drop
  Now rising

  Aspen trees
  Wrong elevation
  So sickly

  Unemployed
  Lilies of the field
  No difference

  Resume'
  Complete in my mind
  We will see

  Job contacts
  Such a waste of time
  No payments

• I wrote these seventeen-syllable haiku when I was trying to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout. I'm still using Qwerty.

  Haiku for Dvorak

  Typing Dvorak
  Fries my brain so terribily
  Automatic jam

  The words are present
  Fingers grind with the effort
  Blazing a new path

  Who talks of fingers?
  It is mind all the way down
  Touch all the levels

  Old patterns still cling
  A flurry of fast keystrokes
  All of them qwerty

• I submitted these seventeen-syllable haiku about the movie "A Mighty Wind" (which I liked very much) to a contest on poetry.com. I didn't win.

  Haiku for "A Mighty Wind"

  Improvisation
  Ensemble genius displayed
  Modern masterpiece

  Satire so subtle
  That it could almost be true
  An inspired Guest

  New Main Street Singers
  Saccharin and earnestness
  Displayed in full view

  The Folksmen, older
  Were Spinal Tap, on a time
  And just as funny

  Sweet Mitch and Mickey
  The emotional center
  An ultimate kiss