Friday, August 31, 2007

Haibun while contemplating an abandoned bus stop

While sitting on my front porch this evening, I was struck by the contrast between the metal bus stop pole complete with its "BUS STOP ELIMINATED" placard and the gentle brown complexity of the tree next to it. I decided to sketch the scene. The sign has its flag-like blue and white UTA metal sign at the top, with its friendly-looking bus, and UTA contact information. Below are the confusing plastic signs indicating that the route is being changed, and then finally, on the bottom, that the route has been eliminated. Here the friendly bus has been crossed out with a disturbing red naught--an "O" with a slash through it. The metal pole the signs are attached to is galvanized and full of holes. It is firmly sunk into the grass of the parking strip by the corner of my lot. The sidewalk runs peacefully by, unaware that it will no longer feel the weight of people waiting to be transported somewhere out from under the shade of the tree that grows a few feet away.

My elbow rubs against the banana plant next to me as I capture the scene in my sketch book. The trunk of the tree draws my attention: a white knot-hole of a missing limb becomes all important to me. It whorls out over the page with my pencil.

The shadows in the street cross each other, and the solidarity of the sidewalk runs hard over the bottom of the scene.

My pencil scratches against the paper.

I have been careful to leave room to write this between my rendition of the pole and the tree trunk:

The contrast between
Metal and wood wounds my eye
On this summer night

Labels: haibun, haiku, nature, poetry, summer, transportation

¶ 10:24 PM 1 comments

Listen to this article

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Renga: Summer

Here is the renga so far. I think it has a couple more rounds in it:

Renga: Summer

A hot wind jostles
Dry wheat from its summer sleep
Sweat slides down my cheek [CG]

or are these tears? I have dreamt
a body turned green to gold [LB]

I have yet to lose
but losing comes in fast blows
to my consciousness [KT]
a body weary of heat
yearning for the sleep of fall [LK]

I enter the field
Merging with the golden wheat
One being, one self [CG]

Sorry I got so freaking Zen on the last stanza.

Labels: collaboration, poem, poetry, season, summer

¶ 9:47 AM 3 comments

Listen to this article

Monday, July 02, 2007

Failed analogy

Given that it is summer, I thought I would provide you with just snack writing, gentle reader. Snacks are the best summer cuisine. Rather than "snacks" I think we should use the Spanish word tapas. When I think of Spain I think of eternal summer, even though I know it is not aways summer there and they do, indeed have cold weather, pine trees, and snow.

One can dream of the land of eternal summer, however.

So the point of tapas is not to have a point. You just eat small portions until you are full, drink some wine, and then fall asleep beneath and Andalusian sky.

You wake up to bread and cheese and then start the whole thing over again. That's what summer is and that is what writing in the summer is.

Too bad it has to end.

Labels: cheese, elaborate-analogy, failure, food, fun, pointless, rambling, season, summer, tapas, wine, writing