rain clouds advance:
an army that won't stop to
besiege the city.
Dark Advance [Haiku]
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Mystery Door [Lyric Poem]
There's something about an old wood door --
ornate (but on some humdrum street)
that makes one wonder if it's more
than its neighbors -- something offbeat:
Perhaps, a portal into Hell,
a Speakeasy of unknown vice,
a smelly cheese smuggling cartel,
a school for wizards, imprecise.
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DAILY PHOTO: Man Mandir Gate, Gwalior
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Baby Monkey Wisdom [Kyōka]
the fixed boulder
makes great shelter;
rolling boulders
make monkey paste:
how do baby monkeys know?
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PROMPT: Budgeting
First, use what you’ve got to put food in your face. If there’s left over, acquire suitable shelter. If there’s some left, buy a book.
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Whiplash Weather [Free Verse]
Mountains are the
Lamborghini of weather --
from gray and dismal to
gloriously sunny
and back again
in record time.
It may rain and the droplets
burn off before noon,
leaving no trace of
the gloom.
One day may feel
multiple ways before
the sun goes down.
The human mind isn't
built for such whiplash
emotional experience.
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Squirrel Grandiosity [Lyric Poem]
A squirrel sat straight upon a dirt mound.
It could survey the woods for miles around.
Holding an acorn like a microphone,
The rodent seemed to be deep in the Zone.
Perhaps comedy stylings or folk songs?
But it just chewed its nut loud and long.
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Disappointed Sparrow [Kyōka]
birdbath grows from
fungus on a dead log;
flitting sparrow
is disappointed to find
no water remains within.
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DAILY PHOTO: Mountains, Green & Snowcapped
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PROMPT: Patriotic
I am. I wish my country the best, am pained to see ailments of what have always been the country’s greatest strengths (the government being limited and at the command of the people and the law [rather than the other way around] and the courage to boldly lead by building the new technologies and adapting to the world that came to be,) and will not stop bitching about it unless and until the situation rights itself. When I was a young man, I served in the military and waved flags. Now, as an old man, I’m not eager to see America go gently into that good night.
I realize that may sound excessively Pollyanna about America’s past and pessimistic about the present / future. I do realize that the country has always had its flaws, as humanity always does. (And loved it all the same.) There have been missteps and mass movements that would later come to be viewed as wrongheaded and self-defeating. But we always had checks and balances, an Enlightenment norm for tolerance, and a respect for decorum and gravitas in our leaders. Now, as I see the “Putin-Orban Manual for New Populist-Nationalist Dictators” being played out, I wonder if the shark hasn’t been jumped on all that was good, honorable, and impressive in the America in which I grew up.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 