Matinale

In the morning

I know why

You put on makeup

To hide your beauty

So the sun will rise

And not be outshone

By your face

The Peddler

Morning escape from the gravity of my bed

To the gods-washed air of spring Japan

After the rains of the season

I hump 10 kilograms of words in my backpack

I am a peddler of words

I buy with a smile or a single letter

I sell either hard or softly

Charming or cajoling students to cough up their hoarded words

I sold words in my homelands once

Flowery French that melts your mouth

To fidgety babes that spat it out

Staccato English that echoes in your house

To finicky buyers who already had their share

Lean Japanese that turned all angles 45 degrees

To fanboys busting out of kimonos like the dead

But it was not the same as here

Peddling my wares for a good price

After the rains of the season

In the gods-washed air of spring Japan

Of Love and Pain

There is no why

There is only you and I

There is no when

There is once never again

There is no how

There is only us right now

Wipe your eyes, dry your tears

Try to smile the coming years

Until from pain our souls are freed

This love we share is all we need

Ode to Youth Wasted

“Youth is wasted on the young”

Don’t believe that horse dung!

My younger self wasted every day

Frittering my time and love away

Stealing kisses from the pretty

Making mistakes naïve and petty

I tell you now the absolute truth

This is the very purpose of youth

I will never for a second repent

A wanton second I misspent

As for wishing you were young again

There is no worse way your time to spend

Putting in kid bodies adult mind sets

Would spoil their childish kindness

The last thing people need

Is jaded adults in their greed

Grown ups and their ways untruthful

Trying to ruin things youthful

There could be no greater fatality

Then if we discover immortality

Reflections May End

Only Out of Sight

Living out of sight is really being out of mind. Such is life, but for those who’ve never ranged far from home, this is what it feels like. Drop us a line form time to time.

The Hand of Man

I like the way the Japanese let nature grow over infrastructure to a great degree. Easy to imagine it reclaiming things if we were gone. Happening now in Fukushima, actually.

African Beats

The old Festival d’ete in Ville de Quebec is where my love affair with African music started. Merci Quebec!

Ode to Naked Young People

We had such bad bodyself- images when we were young! How could anyone but an utter prude be shocked at a young person in shape showing a little flesh?

Urban Haikus

Nature always finds a way in Japan, One of the charms of the place.

My Maniac Friends

Mark and mark and Mike, dunno why you put up with me, but thanks.

Morning Haikus

Walking home from Glen’s lovely ricefield home inspired these. Hungover and sick as a dog, only the beauty kept me feet going one after the other.

Bin Laden Haikus

First is what I would ask him, second is the closest I ever came to him.

A Log House

A German prof at work had me over for coffee. Funny old time.

Conversation with Jonathan

Little game I played on Facebook with Jonathan. Glad to see him in Japan again.

Old Loves

My love for the old town is there, alright, eclipsing all those other old ones.

Haikus for Mothers

Mothers are walking miracles.

Cosmology of Modern Man

Just boiling down what BS people spout to its prime ingredients.

On Watching Edison’s Silent Kinetoscope Movies

My satellite TV has these great early films. If you come over, watching these is the litmus test to see if we have similar appreciation for old things. Amazing images.

Ode to Mutinies

Taught a course on African-American history. A wonder they didn’t mutiny. Then again, mutiny or revolution is all where you’re standing.

In The City

More nature poking through in urban Japan. Love it.

Modern Inconveniences

I feel the need for face to face interaction, but FB is a decent substitute. So is this blog, I guess.

World’s End

Another faulty Rapture. Another group of idiot believers. Guess the world needs to be reminded of human nature from time to time.

Two Way Street

Inspired by Draskoy and my street. You should see me park.

Springhope

I thought all my spring poems were out, but a good clean air day can bring one on.

Ode to Super Villany

Bad guys in tights have nothing on CEOs in suits.

Body Haikus

I fear there are more of these reflections on aging coming. Oh well….

Procrastination Haiku 1

Sometimes life is just too beautiful to spend working.

Connecting

What a great shock it is to feel. Must start doing these at work a bit more.

Sapphic

I don’t feel that erotic attraction so much any more, but that railing of a young mind in an older body is there. As is my love of Greek poets.

Sapphic

Girl in the summer white skirt

Greek sandals on the stairs

You could be a figure from Sappho

I am drawn like Hylas to his death

I yearn to be my old younger self

Hair like a girl next to yours

My young eyes drinking your beauty

Not trapped in this stink of old man flesh

Connecting

You’ll know it when you feel it

That sense of connecting

I felt it once in karate

Getting my ass kicked

Master yelled “Do it like practice”

A perfect punch like a lightning bolt

Yellow belt connecting to black

He yelled out, incredulous

I felt it when I met my wife

Talking together in a café

We reached for the same cup

A perfect touch like a lightning bolt

Pink hand connecting to beige

We laughed, embarrassed

You’ll know it when you feel it

That sense of connecting

Procrastination Haiku 1

Sit and eat ice cream

Sky watching from balcony

Work screams to be done

Body Haikus

Body Haiku 1

My midsection sags

Bus to work and stand teaching

Must start jogging home

Body Haiku 2

My face grows fleshy

Exercise and soy lose to

My Inuit genes