late afternoon sun
catches yellow bloom clusters:
the day’s last hurrah.
Last Hurrah [Haiku]
1
Category Archives: Color
World Writ Minimalist [Kyōka]
sunrise paints the haze
the color of campfire flames,
and nothing looks real,
but rather like a painting
by an artist, skilled & lazy.
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Sandstone Still-Life [Haiku]
in sandstone canyons,
shrubs grow thick & green;
no signs of day life.
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Camouflage, Not! [Haiku]
a squirrel chitters;
its black body against
the ash gray tree.
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Dueling Colorful [Haiku]
Butterfly shows off
its luminous blue wings
to hot pink flowers.
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“The River Runs Red” by Yue Fei [w/ Audio]
Enraged, I lean on the rail as rain ceases.
I look skyward, and sigh -- then roar.
My grand legacy has crumbled to dust:
A journey of thirty years and 8,000 li.
Young men, don't let regret come with gray hair!
The shame of Jingkang lingers -- a foul taste
We Generals must wash from our mouths.
Let's charge our chariots through Helan Pass
To feast on the flesh of our foes & drink their blood.
Only then can we return home with honor.
In Chinese, the poem is entitled 滿江紅 (Man Jiang Hong,) “The Whole River, Red”:
怒髮衝冠，憑欄處，瀟瀟雨歇。
抬望眼，仰天長嘯，壯懷激烈。
三十功名塵與土，八千里路雲和月。
莫等閒白了少年頭，空悲切。
靖康恥，猶未雪；
臣子恨，何時滅？
駕長車踏破賀蘭山缺！
壯志飢餐胡虜肉，笑談渴飲匈奴血。
待從頭收拾舊山河，朝天闕。
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Phantasm Avenue [Free Verse]
Bleary-eyed drunks
stagger down the street;
Eyes drawn to
orbs of color,
Looking up,
the lanterns become
planets.
Spinning spheres of
vertiginousness
that send tipsy chappies
face first into terra firma.
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Bamboo Thicket [Haiku]
a copse of bamboo
shades the mossy creek rocks,
deepening their green.
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A Close & Colorless Sea [Free Verse]
The ocean vast
closes in.
Clouds drop.
If the horizon still exists,
it's behind an approaching
wall of gray.
Whatever is closing down
the world has also
drained it of color.
The shadows are black.
The sea foam is white.
Everything else is
some dim, earthy tone.
The sea may have retained
a hint of green or blue,
but it's hard to tell --
so darkened &
gray-infused
are the waters.
I fear the world may shrink
to a dot, like an old timey TV
snapped off, a dot that's
bright white but cold.
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“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 