Afternoon Haikus at the Cafe

Afternoon Haikus at the Cafe
[At El Parquettos, Miraflores, Lima Peru]

Outside the Cafe

The little pigeons
Around the cobblestone
Are looking around!...

#1814 (5-9-2007)


Sarah

The waitress looks
Like pigeon
Picking her ear at heaven

#1815


Minstrels

Men of the band—
What do they think?
I know (money for tips!)

#1816


Afternoon

In the afternoon sun
The people
Walk slowly

(by the café)

#1817


Rosa Reads

Frozen in thought
Forearms on the table
Under a yellow umbrella

#1819


Minstrels #2

Listen to the band play!
All the little brave men
Will all die some day!

#1820


Umbrella

The sun creeps over the umbrella
Separates us—
Like heaven to Hell

#1821


Coffee

Coffee—too strong
To put me to sleep
Too light to drink

#1822



Comments on the Haikus—The Haiku is both singular and plural, but can bring some issues when the‘s’ is employed. Best known for its 17-short line syllables and developed over hundred of years in Japan. Many people have slighted the original style of the Haiku, calling it revolutionary names, unskilled at it likewise, such as those ungrateful from the Beat Generation, who seemed to have won the hearts of many with a single utterance from Zen, on top of their well wishes. Anyhow Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, and those like them somehow felt like Solomon and King David involved in producing the new Psalms of God, felt like they were doing bestowing upon earth such great wisdom. Not likely of course. Poetry should have no trickery, especially in the short Haikus, since there is no room for them. They need to be free, plane, graceful, simple, and to the point. I’ve written many in the past, and have exterminated with them, like others, careful not to descry the essence of them. We must make sure the course of the poem does not go mountain climbing, in saying that I mean, we must look for a fresh lake water in writing them, the calmness must be in them, for if not how can they grow on the soul. Ezra Pound, a great writer in many forms, studied the Haikus as many of his contemporaries have. And I suppose I have, and those after me will. The best we can do is to produce them with grace, and apologize for our mistakes, and stand tall for our endeavors.

Note: It should be noted, there are different styles of Haikus, Chinese and Italian to mention a few; some with additional lines, and others with additional syllables within the lines, it just happens to be the Japanese is the most popular.







Little Windows

The little silent stone windows
At Cajamarca
Stare in our face!

#1812 (The Little Windows refer to the graveyard, 200 AD, in Cajamarca, Peru, where the pre Inca natives buried their dead in the windows)



The Picture

Keep your eye steady
Lest you lose the whole objective
To paint the whole picture

#1811