Deborah Kolodji & Michael Newell: Wednesday Haiku, #111

Photo by MAClarke21

we promise each other
nothing will change
slack tide

   Deborah P Kolodji
   Modern Haiku, 42.1, Winter/Spring 2011

Photo by Cobalt123

A flowering rock.
Why do I insist
on questioning miracle?

Michael L. Newell

Photo by T-Miki

a village of slackers
lackadaisical
plum blossoms

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

   
best,

Don   

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Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 163 song

Animal in Man: Issa's Sunday Service, #88

This week's selection is one of many songs that make reference to the work of Eric Blair, otherwise known by the pen name George Orwell, this one being possibly the most powerful and most relevant to his original message. "Animal Farm" is every bit as political and vile as "1984," and Dead Prez underscores this loud and clear.

In "Animal in Man," all the characters names remain the same except Mister Jones, the farmer, who is transformed into Sammy, and we all know whose Uncle he is.

The revolution will not be televised.










The British made a fine full-length animated version of "Animal Farm" in which no punches were pulled. If you have one hour and eleven minutes, treat yourself. If you'd just like a taste, here is the first ten minutes:







Hallmark Entertainment did a live action version but we are not going there. The Kinks also have a song called "Animal Farm," a million miles from Orwell, so we won't go there today either; perhaps, later in a different installment, from a different point of view.


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Rita Cummings pointed out this excellent feature on Issa done at Haiku Chronicles.  While listening to the audio, you can follow along the text with this .pdf.  Anita Virgil does not avoid the tough questions about Issa, right from the get-go.  In addition, she admits when she's been wrong; it doesn't get much better than that for me.


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Keep the poems coming for the Wednesday Haiku @ Issa's Untidy Hut feature.   Details may be found here.


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This week's feature poems come from Lilliput Review, #111, July 2000 from two masters of the short poem. Enjoy.



2 Reasons To Get Up

The sun shining through the parched rice grass.
The rice letting it.

Carl Mayfield

too small
to roll off -
the drops of morning mist.

Gary Hotham

in the misty day
not growing older...
grave tablets

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS  Get 2 free issues     Get 2 more free issues     Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature.  Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 88 songs

Hear 'em all at once on the the LitRock Jukebox

Subscribe to Lilliput Review

Hey, Jack Kerouac: Issa's Sunday Service, #75

Photo by Eliott Erwitt

October 26th is the birthday of Natalie Merchant, lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs, whose song "Hey, Jack Kerouac," is the 75th selection for Issa's Sunday Service.

75 is a lot of songs with literary connections.  I've got over 300 more in the hopper and seem to be adding more every week.

The question is: is it worth the effort?  A worthwhile enterprise?  A gleeful obsession?

Or just one person's deep bow to two cornerstones of a blessed everyday existence?

Hmn?

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Here's another by 10,000 Maniacs, a little something for all of us, nailing the last 30 or so years very nicely, thank you very much, and introduced by an old friend.  Such a sweet, deadly delivery, all around.

Candy Everybody Wants
If lust and hate is the candy,
if blood and love tastes so sweet,
then we give 'em what they want.
Hey, hey, give 'em what they want.

So their eyes are growing hazy 'cos they wanna turn it on,
so their minds are soft and lazy.
Well, hey, give 'em what they want.

If lust and hate is the candy,
if blood and love tastes so sweet,
then we give 'em what they want.

So their eyes are growing hazy 'cos they wanna turn it on,
so their minds are soft and lazy.
Well... who do you wanna blame?

Hey, hey, give 'em what they want.

If lust and hate is the candy,
if blood and love tastes so sweet,
then we give 'em what they want.

So their eyes are growing hazy 'cos they wanna turn it on,
so their minds are soft and lazy.

Well... who do you wanna blame?

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This week's feature come from Lilliput Review, #111, a triple-header of Albert Huffstickler, from July 2000.  Over a space of 10 plus years, I published so much of Huff's work I've forgotten many of the poems and when I go back he breaks my heart again.




Three by Huff

And still the light,
always the light.
Mornings are hardest,
the light so like
that other light,
that light we remember
when we don't remember
anything at all.

And still the day
And still the clouds
And still me
sitting over coffee
on this street where I live
and the cars pass
while the sky
keeps trying to rain.

The thing about
bringing Lazarus back --
did Jesus ask him?

Albert Huffstickler

night mist--
the horse remembers
the bridge's hole

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue 

best,
Don

PS  Get 2 free issues     Get 2 more free issues     Lillie poem archive

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 75 songs
Hear all 75 at once on the the LitRock Jukebox

Subscribe to Lilliput Review

Albert Huffstickler Park update ...

The small park that a large contingent of friends of the late Albert Huffstickler had hoped would be named after the Austin poet has been named after the "Tree Lady," a former council woman.

The thought to memorialize Huff has not passed, however. There is a movement afoot to name a small section of Hyde Park after Huff and it is gaining some traction with the Austin City Council. Hyde Park was close to Huff's home and he was affectionately, if unofficially known as "The Poet of Hyde Park" while he was still alive.

Here is the press coverage

I have measured
my solitude on
the scale of
my being
and come up with
a formula
for converting
ashes in sunlight

Albert Huffstickler
Lilliput Review, #111

the grass and wheat
tottering...
sunlight stretches on

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don