Five-Seven-Five is Sublime

I have been inspired of late to write in haiku. For the few who don't know, a haiku is a type of Japanese poem written in three lines of seventeen syllables. The first line has five syllables, the second seven, and the third five. There are many beautiful haiku written in Japanese. Unfortunately for us, the structure does not translate into English. The greatest haiku, though extreme in brevity, have beautiful imagery. Often the last line has a punch to it, making the reader's head spin. The last line is supposed to make you think.

I like playing with the structure of haiku, in English of course. As someone who tends to be overly verbose in her writing, the limiting nature of haiku makes for a good exercise in saying more with less. I've gotten fairly good at it, except for the last line being the grand finish it is intended to be. I am seldom very good at that. Often times, I end up with a bunch of haiku on the same subject, none of them good enough to stand on their own. However, I don't like to be wasteful, so I sometimes "recycle" these short, inadequate poems into one longer one. The individual haiku become stanzas in a poem that I think is stronger and more expressive of my intent. That is what I ended up doing recently with a series of haiku.

I am sharing three poems with you. The first you will find at the end of this post. It is an example of a haiku that lacks that special punch. But it still has some charm, and so I decided to share it. The second is a longer poem, a series of haiku, concerning a subject that is often on my mind. The illustration is from the National Gallery of Art website: http://www.nga.gov/home.htm. It happens to be one of my favorite depictions of the Crucifixion. It was supposedly painted for the private devotions and prayers of a Dominican nun.  The third is another single haiku and a little better than the first. It was inspired by my in-laws' recent landscaping project. It has a little bit more zing to it. The illustrations are indeed the before and after photographs of the landscaping project in question.

Here is a haiku to start the ball rolling.

Opportunity

All my energy
Drained in monthly bloodletting.
Knock on door ignored.

Two poems to share

I have two poems to share with you. The first is entitled “Simple Girl”

The other day I experienced a moment of inspiration. For the first time, in a rather long time, I actually wrote a piece of poetry. I must admit I’m a bit out of practice. I went about it “old school” and dusted off my journal. What I put to paper was actually rather long and rambling. The germ of the idea was there, but the form and language were clumsy. It was a horribly wordy attempt that came across as somewhat preachy. The odd thing is that the theme was not something one would normally be preachy about, so that confused me a little. So I put it down for a while and returned to it later. After rereading the mess of images and ideas, I pieced together a completely different poem. Still free verse, this time there was a semblance of order, and the words expressed the ideas in a much more concise fashion. While there is still a little more “tell” than I’d prefer, the second attempt had a little more “show” in the way of images, which is usually what I’m aiming for in my poetry.

The other poem, “Summer Storm” was written last summer. The weather in the desert can be incredibly fascinating, as if each storm has it’s own personality.

Inspiration

Nothing can bring out a poem faster than being inspired by the one you love. Nothing can be more inspirational than when he (or she) shows his support of you and your passion during a trying election process, celebrates with you when sweet victory is announced at 8PM Pacific time, and remains by your side, katana in hand, when the struggle continues. Your muse is never more present when he is comforting you when you feel hurt and abused by a friend, except perhaps in that precious hour you steal for yourselves when the baby is napping.

I will be posting 3 poems on the theme of love. It is a subject very much on my mind of late, and not just because of the wonderful man that I am so lucky to call my husband. Love is the only reason to marry, or it should be. The institution of marriage is threatened by those who take for granted the privilege and marry for money, position, power, or some other reason. When marriage is little more than a business arrangement, it is abused. But it will survive as long there are more of us who marry for love and nothing else. It is a sad time we live in, when some who wish to marry for love are prevented from doing so. Marriage may be wounded, but in time it can be healed.

A matter of process

I went back through the archives of my blog on MySpace and was a bit disappointed. It seems not only did I not post very often, but I also didn't post much of consequence. Most of the blogs are, quite frankly, not worth reposting. So, never mind that. I've already posted the sole poem that I bothered to share on that blog. I seem to recall that the only real reason I posted it was because it was inspired by a generator someone shared on MySpace Bulletins. With inspiration coming at such rare intervals these last few years, I thought it was worth the repost. It goes to show that the muse can manifest itself in unexpected forms. It is also evidence that a person can use those silly generators to invent unique writing exercises. "Gone but not forgotten" will be the only repost to appear on "Sleeping Dragons."

I sat down to write a poem the other night and was stymied. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood. The inspiration was there, and the idea for the poem had been floating around in my head for a few days. I could picture the images I wanted to invoke. However, it was difficult to find the words and nearly impossible to find my voice. After struggling with it for a while I finally turned off the computer and slipped off to bed. I decided that I needed a different approach.

To get the creative juices flowing, I started to revisit some of my old works in progress. The better ones I will post here, starting with a short poem which makes use of a few lyrics from classic rock. This is a theme I have used once or twice in the past before I started saving my writing electronically. I am not sure if this constitutes infringement, but it hardly matters since I am currently an unpublished poet. When I post some of these older poems, I will include a date originally written, if known.

I only hope you enjoy reading them, as I did writing them.

"Come on People Now"

“Come on People Now”

God said the meek shall inherit the earth

I say let them have it

With the foul air and polluted waters

You quote your cannon and I’ll quote mine

Either “live a lie until you die”

Or “stand and be counted”

The choice is mine and yours

Having freedoms and rights

Is as pointless as having a voice

If you never speak

So “Shout” and “let it all out”

Already

Dunnica Harps

(written January, 2007)

"Gone but not forgiven"

This poem was originally posted on my MySpace blog May 10, 2006.

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"Gone but not forgiven"
That'll be my epitaph
See I make no apologies
heh, don't make me laugh
I wear what I want
regardless of age, style or class
You can judge me all you want
You're somebody else's pain in the ass
--not mine
I do what I want and don't give a shit
if it ain't right or proper
That dumb ass driving that shiny SUV
ain't nothin' next to a man on a chopper
Any man of mine better know his mind
and not sell out to the status quo
I need a lover who's one of a kind
not some red tie clone strivin' to stay in tow
My folks they raised a strong willed girl
and I aim to do them proud
Now these politicians telling us how to think
Well they just make me want to scream out loud
I've got a mind and know how to use it
and y'all are just full of shit
If you don't like what I've got to say
what a shame 'cause I ain't sorry one bit
I've got the right to speak my mind
to be outspoken , even at times down right crass
You can judge me all you want
You're somebody else's pain in the ass
--not mine
So if you've got a problem with who I am
with something I say or do
Speak your mind, you've got the right
but that problem that belongs to you
--ain't mine

Dunnica Harps