Category: Poems

Some More Haikus

A set of 5 haikus. I like haikus

Sound in the morning

My cat’s at my door again

Making a big fuss

Broken down machines

Left abandoned in the woods

To rust and decay

A foreign language

Words I should know but I don’t

Memory has failed

Shouting and shrieking

Late into the deep, dark night

My friends never sleep

An awkward mirror

Left alone in a thrift store

It reads “IM A GINE”

Drive on the freeway

Music blares for me and him

Despite that; quiet

Count Them

A poem recounting a lifetime of body shaming

Pool day

Shirt off

Trunks on

 

Cool water on hot skin

Laughter with everyone nearby

It’s fun, it’s fresh, it’s cool

 

One sentence cuts through the rest

“Go eat a sandwich. You’re like a twig.”

Laughter for all but one.

 

Doctor’s office

Appointment Day

One good health checkup

 

Vaccines are distributed

Heights are recorded

Weights are measured

 

One sentence stands out from the rest

“You’re underweight.”

I’m only eight. I don’t understand

 

A summer day with sprinklers

It’s time to head outside

and have fun in the sun

 

Dashing back and forth, laughing and shouting and cheering

We don’t do this often, so we’re just relishing the chance

Back and forth and back and forth we ran; a mesmerising dance

 

Sitting down to catch our breath, someone decides to speak

“Do you ever eat? You’re a skeleton!”

I don’t know how to respond. Of course I eat. Why wouldn’t I?

 

I’m with some friends at school recess

We do what we normally do

Walking and talking to waste time

 

The topics often vary from things we were doing in class

to things we were doing at home and with family

and sometimes we talked about more existential things

 

A silence falls for a second after one conversation topic ended

And in a panic to keep the conversation going, I say it:

“Check it out, you can totally count my ribs.”

Crumbling

A misguided man raises a monster

A wretched thing was found tonight
In a weald not far from here
An item which held a life of its own
But lacked a shape to show its life

It was green and minuscule, but the finder knew something
About the way that it held no mouth, no teeth to speak
But still told him that it hungered
He had heard of this and knew it should be left
Yet he took it home to study

“The thing should feed,” He told himself
“It won’t last long if it doesn’t.”
Yet he knew it was wrong
The formless creature shouldn’t have an eye
and the eye shouldn’t have fangs

The item grew to the size of a toddler, at least
Its eye was wide and bared its teeth
Another eye was growing on its back, behind the first
The man could tell the more it grew, the more that it would feast
With or withour his help, the thing would grow
The thing would hunt and consume

It ate his cat whole with a single look
The kitten was gone, the man saw it all
He held his head in shame. He couldn’t face the town
The man must have known what he was doing
For a crumbling could be heard coming from behind the eye

A Collection of Haikus

Some haikus I wrote a while back, with a friend

I’ve always enjoyed Haikus. They seem very easy to create, but not if you want one to be good. A haiku is incredibly limited, and therefore you must be very deliberate to make a haiku powerful and good. That said, I found a small collection of haikus within a notebook of mine, and so I’ve decided to share them with you. If I remember properly, I think I was experimenting with mood in each one. I can’t remember exactly what each mood was, but they do show a mood. None of these Haikus are titled, and so you can decide what you would like to call each of them. All of these Haikus will be posted in the order in which they were written.

A burnt and crisped field
Emptiness and cold surround
Where fire once blazed

Snowstorm lies outside
Determination fills you
Strength to carry on

Gray clouds above you
Raindrops fall in the window
Lie in bed alone

Sun beats down today
Warm outside yet you are cold
Coats can’t make you warm

Take heart warrior
Your efforts will change this world
You have brought courage

Sun shines on the field
Extravagant flowers bloom
Birds cheep cheerily

This last poem is written by my friend Ace Stansfield, and posted with his blessing. It was on the same page, so it feels proper to include it

Love is like a dove
It finds its match and flies off
And in time it dies

Snowfall

A poem describing an unpleasant event

Grey clouds loom overhead
Yet bring no rain
These clouds are dead
motivation only comes with strain.

A spark is lit
And tossed aside
The Tyrant’s fit
Leaves trees their fears confide

Their genocide spreads terror
Many days will never come
All the deaths a hopeless sum
None of their fates were fairer

Wooden shrieks of agony
Are heard from miles around
Look for hope but none be found
At this wretched travesty

The ashes are rife
The land is bare
Yet clouds come to life
Snowfall fills the air

Enigma

A Sestina style poem about a creature found on a beach

If you are trying to read this on mobile, I’m sorry.

The doctor completes his examination
Of the victim from the coast
He runs to create his proof
Done by dawn
He wants glory
From his answer

 

A new man, his sanity coasts
This is irrefutable proof
A new man, a Madman, lies awake till dawn
The Doctor has his glory
The Madman lacks an answer
Both need a new examination

 

The Doctor’s peers study his proof
Late in the night, through dawn
The Doctor still basking in his glory
The Madman still searching for an answer
He searches and looks for his own examination
Lying on the Coast

 

The sun breaks through dawn
It shines its glory
Over a new answer
Our Madman, excited, takes his own examination
Of the new body lying on the coast
His own maniacal proof

 

Glory
It breaches through the surface, an answer
Spectators take their own examination
Of the Eldritch horror on the coast
It is it’s own proof
Lying dead at dawn

 

The world has seen their answers
And everyone knows the examinations
Of the the Eldritch beast that crashed on the coast
Some still doubt the proof
Of the creature discovered at dawn
A thing that gave a Madman glory

 

Have they really found a solid answer, an impossible proof?
Do you believe the examination created at dawn?
Or will you search that fateful coast for your own glory?