Sunday 22 October 2023

Lamentation Number Thirty Nine

Something puzzled me as a very small boy, and my confusion has deepened ever since.  I will try to explain the problem and at the same time respond (as I usually do, in Haiku form) to the the Poets and Storytellers' Friday prompt . . . 

WHY?



Why did the chicken?
It's said "Because the higher
the fewer." ??? Search me!

Reminds me of a verse from the Rubyaiyat of Omar Khayyham:

'Myself when young did oft frequent
doctor and saint, and heard much argument
about it and about. But evermore
went out by the selfsame door I came in.'

 . . . and I hope that makes everything clear.






Friday 15 September 2023

Lamentation Number Thirty Eight

No Use Crying . . . 


Wrote love-letters. Spilt
black ink all over them. Stormed
out. (Fate always wins . . . )


This despondent haiku (5-7-5 syllables) is my response to Magaly's prompt on Poets&Storytellers United, where me were asked to reflect on Love, Ink and Storm.  What a recipe for heartache!
 

Friday 8 September 2023

Lamentation Number Thirty Seven

Haiku In Memory


Girls in my youth wore
Blue Grass, Lenthérique. All gone!
(like my sense of smell  . . .)

This week, Rosemary invites us to write about fragrance, perfume, all that delights (or dismays) the olfactory sense. Alas . . . age has reduced mine to almost zero.  As noted here.

Friday 1 September 2023

Lamentation Number Thirty Six

A Sundered Haiku 


Marriage to divorce,
from triumph to disaster -
win-win for lawyers.

Always good to see Divorce triumphing over the disaster of Love gone wonky, so here is an illustration of the idea in response to the Poets and Storytellers weekly prompt.

Friday 25 August 2023

Lamentation Thirty Five (*)

A pessimist's response to Poets & Storytellers asking for our 'muscle memories.'

Haiku(s) In Memoriam.

Verses

In times past muscles
served me well. Swung hammers, dug
ditches, built railroads.

Then I took to drink,
Swapped my six-pack for tinnies
Swing the elbow now.

Can still crush empties
with one hand, (though not full ones
like weightlifters can.)

Punning on 'can' there!
Did you note? 'Cans' and 'Tinnies'?
(I'll get me coat)

Chorus. (Sing after each verse)
Biceps, triceps, quads and pects
all reduced to flabby wrecks


(*) Followers, friends and fans might be wondering what happened to Lamentation Thirty Four.  '34' is one of the gloomiest integers in the number field from minus to plus infinity, along with 369 and 1000000000000066600000000000001(**)  I'm sure you can work out why.  Thus it seemed prudent to miss 34 out.

(**) Known as 'Belphegor's Prime.'  It is too!  It's prime!  Check it out. Also - 2 sequences of 13 zeroes and 'the sign of the beast, 666' in the middle, AND it's palindromic.  If that doesn't depress you . . . 

Friday 18 August 2023

Lamentation Thirty Three

 A Spongee(*) Haiku for a Cake With Teeth


Had my cake. Ate it.
From inside cake cried, "I'll get
back at you for that!"

(*) A 21st. century development of the 'spondee,' a two syllable poetic foot with equal stress on the syllables.  Not much used now that 'free verse' has sidelined poetic rhythm.
e.g. Spondee: Bus stop: Heat pump: Friday: Toothache: Football: Get It?

Posted in response to Rosemary Nissen-Wade's dietary supplement HERE




Friday 11 August 2023

Lamentaton Thirty Two

A Laugh or  Craiku Haiku



Troops to Grunt who fell
On his own sword, "Does it hurt?"
"Only when I laugh."

Inspired by Magaly Guerro’s prompt on Poets and Storytellers United where we are invited to play along with Oscar Wilde who said, "Surely no one can read the death of Little Nell(*) without breaking into tears of hearty laughter."

(*) "The Old Curiosity Shop" (Charles Dickens)