“Haiku Sequence” by John Samuel Tieman & Walter Bargen

John Samuel Tieman & Walter Bargen

HAIKU SEQUENCE

jst
wb
 

once my father drew
the face of the moon before
he got drunk and left

To point at the moon
Is to point the moon
Right here.

* *

I throw a raisin
to a mockingbird hungry
belly yellow eyes

This withered drop of sun
So dark at noon
And so tasty.

* *

a scrap of my past
an old postcard from somewhere
I forgot to stamp

Forty years found
In a postcard whose lake and trees
Rested between pages 26 and 27.

* *

a single snowflake
I do my best to save it
I melt anyway

It is an epaulet, a promotion,
A star to be shouldered
The general command of snow.

* *

in a parking lot
I spot an acorn falling
from nowhere at all

The pale blue flower
Grows in the crack
Ready to move concrete.

from Rattle #47, Spring 2015
Tribute to Japanese Forms

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__________

John Samuel Tieman & Walter Bargen: “We met when we served on the Missouri Arts Council. A few years ago, through email we began to exchange these short poems, these poems and many more, a project that now is a book-length collection.” (website)

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