Haibun

                                             CALIFORNIA DREAMING

October 9, the day we arrive in Los Angeles.  Connecticut transplants. Fugitives from cold winters and lack of work.  Mom, Dad, older sister and I, 16 years old.  A new life in the ultimate dreamland.

                                                 stepping off the train

                                                 a Santa Anna blows
                                                 on schedule 

Surprises and changes every day.  The hot autumn, not the cool, brisk, vivid season of the northeast; eye smarting smog, the sky a dull beige, not the clean, fresh blue we knew; tacos, chili and burritos, not fish and chips or ham with baked beans; bungalows, haciendas and mission churches, not colonial, Georgian and gothic cathedrals.

                                               Pacific sunset–
                                               cheering to win
                                               new school colors

Gean, June 2010

Haiga

Simply Haiku, July 2011

Apple haiku

Heron's Nest, Sept. 2006
Frogpond, Autumn 2005
Dragonfly, October 1975
And Unknown Road

Haibun

THE GOOD LIFE

everything you need everything you want at the mall clothes for school clothes for work at the mall running shoes party shoes fill your house your garage at the mall come today come tomorrow hang out here meet your friends at the mall short of cash charge it now at the mall  everything you need everything you want at the mall

                                                indoor garden

                                              the artificial color

                                                     of roses

Simply Haiku, March 2011

Haiku

Hurricane Irene
in the semi-darkness
a cold breakfast

heavy time
slowly ticking the minutes
Hurricane Irene

Tanka

                                 found in a trashpile
                                 a teapot with a crack
                                 making it useless
                                 but for the curve of its handle
                                 and the tilt of its spout
Stylus Poetry Journal
August 2005

Tanka

                                heat wave-
                                the unwashed smell
                                of city sidewalks;
                                under a shaded flower stall
                                the coolness of country fields

Moonset, October 2008

Summer haiku

                                          a dry white wine-
                                         summer breezes in
                                        through an open door

                                            nothing to do...
                                           we sit and listen
                                         to the pulsing heat

                                           summer shower...
                                   the sour smell of marigolds
                                           along the path

Wisteria, October 2007
Haiku Harvest, spring/summer 2006
Heron's Nest, July 2002