Haiku Variations
Haiku Variations
by Michael R. Burch
This is a poem composed of haiku-like stanzas:
Variations on the Seasons I
by Michael R. Burch
Lift up your head
dandelion,
hear spring roar!
How will you tidy your hair
this near
summer?
Leave to each still night
your lightest affliction,
dandruff.
Soon you will free yourself:
one shake
of your white mane.
Now there are worlds
into which you appear
and disappear
seemingly at will
but invariably blown—
wildly, then still.
Gasp at the bright chill
glower
of winter.
Icicles splinter;
sleep still an hour,
till, resurrected in power,
you lift up your head,
dandelion.
Hear spring roar!
Variations on Fall
Farewells like
falling
leaves,
so many sad goodbyes.
?Michael R. Burch
Falling leaves
brittle hearts
whisper farewells
?Michael R. Burch
Autumn leaves
soft farewells
falling ...
falling ...
falling ...
?Michael R. Burch
Autumn leaves
Fall’s farewells
Whispered goodbyes
?Michael R. Burch
Variations on the Seasons II
by Michael R. Burch
Mother earth
prepares her nurseries:
spring greening
The trees become
modest,
coy behind fans
*
Wobbly fawns
have become the fleetest athletes:
summer
*
Dry leaves
scuttle like crabs:
autumn
*
The sky
shivers:
snowfall
Each
translucent flake
lighter than eiderdown
the entire town entombed
but not in gloom,
bedazzled.
Variations on Night
Night—
ice and darkness
conspire against human warmth
?Michael R. Burch
Night and the Stars
conspire against me:
Immensity
?Michael R. Burch
in the ice-cold cathedral
prayer candles ablaze
flicker warmthlessly
?michael r. burch
Variations on the Arts
by Michael R. Burch
Paint peeling:
the novel's
novelty wears off ...
The autumn marigold's
former glory:
allegory.
Human arias?
The nightingale frowns, perplexed.
Tone deaf!
Where do cynics
finally retire?
Satire.
All the world’s
a stage
unless it’s a cage.
To write an epigram,
cram.
If you lack wit, scram.
Haiku
should never rhyme:
it’s a crime!
Video
dumped the boob tube
for YouTube.
Anyone
can rap:
just write rhythmic crap!
Variations on Lingerie
by Michael R. Burch
Were you just a delusion?
The black negligee you left
now merest illusion.
The clothesline
quivers,
ripe with unmentionables.
The clothesline quivers:
wind,
or ghosts?
Variations on Love and Wisdom
by Michael R. Burch
Wise old owls
stare myopically at the moon,
hooting as the hart escapes.
Myopic moon-hooting owls
hoot as the hart escapes
The myopic owl,
moon-intent, scowls;
my rabbit heart thunders ...
Peace, wise fowl!
Tanka
All the wild energies
of electric youth
captured in the monochromes
of an ancient photobooth
like zigzagging lightning.
?Michael R. Burch
The plums were sweet,
icy and delicious.
To eat them all
was perhaps malicious.
But I vastly prefer your kisses!
?Michael R. Burch
A child waving ...
The train groans slowly away ...
Loneliness ...
Somewhere in the distance gusts
scatter the stray unharvested hay ...
?Michael R. Burch
How vaguely I knew you
though I held you close ...
your heart’s muffled thunder,
your breath the wind—
rising and dying.
?Michael R. Burch
Keywords/Tags: haiku, tanka, seasons, spring, summer, autumn, fall, winter, snow, night, sleep, day, falling, goodbyes, farewell, farewells, darkness, stars
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