Five Wise Lines from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

All art is quite useless.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are fascinating.

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.

Understory Lore [Tanka]

in a thriving wood,
 sits a barren patch of 
  understory.
 oh what tales locals tell
  about the patch that can't grow!

Bovine Chiropractors [Common Meter]

A cow is an animal, &
 animals are creatures.
  So, having strong proclivities
    is a cardinal feature.

Calling them "creatures of habit"
 must be for a reason.
  If creatures did not form habits
   the term would lose cohesion.

But I digress, I must admit.
 Let me get to my point.
  You see, a sloping pasture must
   be murder on the joints!

A random beast, who stood this way
 & that, would balance out,
  but standing each day - just one way -
   could cause a hip blowout.

A cow that grazes on a pitch
 must have unequal legs.
  Maybe, all it would take would be
   two tiny pirate pegs.

For wearing pegs on the downslope
 side would align the hips,
  but then on walks down to the barn
   cows would be prone to trips. 

For now, there's just one solution:
 bovine chiropractors!
  Because the cost will be so great,
   I'm seeking benefactors. 

Flower Divas [Haiku]

flowers are rock stars:
 standing tall & proud before 
  the swaying grass.

Waiting [Free Verse]

Waiting.
   A space between.

Neither doing,
    nor resting. 

There's something in waiting
    that lies beyond being.

An expectation without promise:

As with Vladimir & Estragon,
    waiting on Beckett's Godot, or
    the Old Man waiting
    at Gao's Bus Stop,
  There may not be a payoff. 

Whatever it is in "waiting" that
    distinguishes it from "being"
    or "resting,"
   it sucks!

All the excitement of expectation,
    nullified by the possibility
    that nothing will happen --
   nothing good, nothing bad...
     just a soul-sucking nothing. 

The Nature of Art [Haiku]

in stone mosaics,
nature’s hand is more artful
than the artist’s.

Deer Stalking [Haiku]

a deer walks,
making less sound than
most squirrels.

Watcher [Haiku]

a heron surveys 
the gently flowing river
with great patience.

Spider Hide [Senryū]

behind the leaf, 
a spider hides like a fat
kid behind a pole.

Lone Oak [Haiku]

one oak tree
stands atop the hill:
unstruck by lightning.