Gatsby Haiku Review

#Baz #Luhrmann’s #Gatsby/
Was surprisingly pleasant/
A pretty good #flick/
#haiku

Production design/
& DeCaprio’s #Gatsby/
Were well worth watching/
#haiku

Fantastic Costumes/
& faux aged New York City/
Were interesting/
#haiku #gatsby

Clever impression/
If not true fidelity/
In this new #Gatsby/
#haiku

#Race’s clever use/
Added a new patina/
On segregation/
#haiku #Gatsby

Ubiquitous #Blacks/
Reminded viewers of #race/
Without preaching much/
#haiku #Gatsby

2 Sad Sights

In the last couple of months I’ve seen two of the saddest things. The first was the paralyzed squirrel that had spent part of the fall scampering around outside of Building 7, pulled only by its front legs. I guess someone must have been feeding it, maybe the nice lady who feeds the cats also brought something down for him to eat, because he was there for a few weeks or a month. The next to the last time I saw him was right by the service exit. He clawed his way out of the bushes and looked up at me as I was heading out with my bike to work, He paused and looked straight at me and I thought, “hope it gets better, you’ve been scrambling like this for a while.” I got on my bike and pedaled off, hoping I’d be able to stay un-paralyzed.
When I was walking Lucky later that day I saw the squirrel about 20 yards from that door pulling autumn leaves up around himself. It was like he was making a little bed by one of the trees he could no longer climb. I guess I knew he was dying then. But why the cover of leaves? DId he want to stay warm? Did he know he’s soon be somebody’s dinner? Did he want to avoid being dinner? The wind blew and exposed his nonparalyzed upper limbs and head and he quickly pulled some leaves back over him. I said goodbye, because I knew this was his end. I was kind of sad, but also happy that I was aware of this struggle for life in nature.

The other calamity I saw was on recycling day on the Upper East Side the day I went to the Whitney with Linda and Mary from California. I was running to the cafe that Lennox and Chandler were sitting at to bring the Calvin and Hobbs book I was carrying to them. On 76th street between Park and Lexington I came across a jumbo clear recycling bad that was full of maybe 30 Kodak rotating slide carousels. I had to know what the photos were of, so I tore a small hole in the bag and pulled out two slides from one of the slide-show carousels that people used to give slideshows before the internet made sharing and collating images so east. (I remember when one of my parents hippy friends came back from some exotic trip (Dan Deitz to Germany? Judy Geisman to India?) and we were all dutifully assembled to see one or two carousels of that trip with their commentary (as the adults got high and drunk). It was boring, though the images were interesting, as they got high and drunk the adults were less and less interesting.
The two slides I got were of Sofia Bulgaria. One was of the “Church Alex Nevsky” (that looked like a mosque), the other was titled “rush hour, Sofia” Both were lettered in sloppy fountain pen writing. I would imagine that the 10,000 slides in those thirty carousels were all also titled in fountain pen. Someone spend their life visiting Eastern Europe (& other places), taking photographs and editing them into slide shows. After each slide was viewed, labeled, carouseled the photographer-traveler, tourguide and slide-show purveyor would invite people to live vicariously though his travels.
Alas, he dies and someone put these slides to the curb to be recycled. What treasures of a life were in those bags? What treasures am I saving for Mason or Chandler or Lennox to throw to the curb some day? Nothing so exotic as a trip behind the soviet Iron Curtain. Sigh.

Ambulatory Surgery

2/19/13

12. Ambulatory/
Hand surgery with hardware/
I’m a bit afraid/
#haiku

13. Pre-surgery fast/
Difficult because I eat/
Habitually/
#haiku

14. Waiting room TV/
Game shows: American greed/
Fight for un-needed/
#haiku

15. Loud television/
Drowning out humanity/
Easing their function/
#haiku

17. Stripped of belongings/
Ev’rything vouchered like jail/
Sit waiting for Doc./
# haiku

18. Climb to the table/
Painful IV under skin/
Drift off to warm drugs/
#haiku

19. Post-Operation/
Dizzy nausea from drugs/
Confused and cold/
#haiku

20. Nurses & Doctors/
At your most traumatic times/
Are simply workers/
#haiku

21. I am in some pain/
It is the pain of healing/
Life keeps improving/
#haiku

16. Surgery went well/
Discomfort is unpleasant/
I will be just fine/
#haiku

Valentine Mine

2/14/13 ❤

2. On valentines’ day/
We try to live up to Love/
But my love’s too big/
#haiku

2b. On valentines’ day/
We try to live up to Love/
No THING could show love/
#haiku

2c. On valentines’ day/
I try to deserve your Love/
But I’m unworthy/
#haiku

2d. On valentines’ day/
We try to live up to Love/
But love is too big/
#haiku

3. The “miracle you”/
Made me the man that I am/
I am so grateful/
#haiku

4. We are an alloy:/
Alone just Copper & Tin/
Together we’re bronze/
#haiku

4b. Linda & Stafford/
Alone just Tin & Copper/
Together we’re bronze/
#haiku

5. Linda Pragmatic/
Stafford too aromatic/
Miracle children/
#haiku

6. Children, don’t chase Love/
In its icky human form/
Real LOVE’s not mere “cute”/
#haiku

7. Love is the beauty/
That human eyes cannot see/
Only hearts* know love/
#haiku *souls

8. Love is pure sweetness/
A dark flavor so sublime/
No tongue can enjoy/
#haiku

8b. Love is pure sweetness/
A dark flavor so sublime/
Mortals taste heaven/
#haiku

9. Love is pure vision/
Seeing beyond physical/
To beauty itself/
#haiku

10. Love is sonic joy/
The music of creation/
Played aloud for you/
#haiku

11. Loving you transforms/
Moments into eternities/
Of pure happiness/
#haiku

12a. Our lusts have become/
Disposable fantasies/
Dreams meant for instants/
#haiku

12b. Desire and lust are/
Disposable fantasies/
Dreams meant for instants/
#haiku

13. Hottie cards expire/
After time foeveryone/
Except our belov’d/
#haiku

14. Beauty’s brief shelf life/
Often expires in-noticed/
Though always observed/
#haiku

Non Urgent Emergency Room

1. The Q18 bus/
To Astoria E.R./
Afraid of Doctors/
#haiku

2. Dirty bus windows/
Obscure the present future/
Adding foreboding/
#haiku

3. I’m afraid of this/
Emergency room visit/
I’m afraid to say/
#haiku

4. Injuries remind/
Me of my mortality/
This life is finite/
#haiku

5. This bus ride: noisy/
Conversations of others/
Matter to speakers/
#haiku

6. E.R. Clerks are good/
Working for creaky system/
Insurance stays paid/
#haiku

7. Little girl bleeding/
Another casualty/
Of Woodside sledding/
#haiku

8. Father holds ice-pack/
Doting on his brave daughter/
In accented love/
#haiku

9. We’re all refugees/
From our usual sound health/
In the waiting room/
#haiku

10. Concentration camp/
People Waiting for health care/
From indifference/
#haiku

11. Mother & Son wait/
Hijab & Hip-Hop visit/
Injured family/
#haiku

12. Nurse turns son away/
Says: “you can translate” winking/
Letting both enter/
#haiku

13. Old man tells story/
Angling for pain killers/
Spurious details/
#haiku

14. Facts shouted indict/
Hospitals, projects & clerk/
An expert patient/
#haiku

15. Russians, Brazilians/
Jamaicans and the forlorn/
In “Camp Waiting Room”/
#haiku

16. Bengali man’s scarf/
Worn like a scott-plaid head-wrap/
Burberry hijab/
#haiku

17. Unfortunate day/
Spent in crowded waiting room/
Small, slow tragedy/
#haiku

18. Wedding ring removed/
Gold dust in the hospital/
From cut wedding rings/
#haiku

19. Got a shot for pain/
This dislocated finger/
Will be re-wrestled/
#haiku

20. Ketorolac shot/
Burns while injecting my arm/
Kills the pain quickly/
#haiku

21. Three left hand Ex-Rays/
With an overworked techie/
And no lead blankets/
#haiku

22. The X-rays can’t say/
How bad my dislocation/
Or where my day went/
#haiku

23. Tiny finger fracture/
And a hand surgeon visit/
The day crawls forward/
#haiku

24. A blind mother dotes/
On a cute nauseous daughter/
Explaining unseen/
#haiku

25. Bus heading back home/
Hand throbbing insistently/
Glad to be outside/
#haiku

Sledding in Woodside Queens 2013

35. Sledding in Woodside/
With the people of the world/
Human gravity/
#haiku

http://bit.ly/V7d1pW

2/10/13

50. The snowy hillside/
In Woodside’s Doughboy playground/
Is peppered with fun/
#haiku

51. Here Colombians/
Bengalis, Tibetans as/
Americans slide/
#haiku

52. Snowy experience/
ReCaptured digitally/
Are sent to tropics/
#haiku

53. iPad made movies/
Of happy Americans/
Are sent far away/
#haiku

54. Woman with hijab/
Gucci covered iPad films/
Her smiling children/
#haiku

55. Korean father/
Roars down the tree covered hill/
Ecstatically loud/
#haiku

56. Mexican fam’ly/
Unloads children & their sleds/
Then tackle papí/
#haiku

57. Americans all/
We enjoy democracy/
Of our acceptance/
#haiku

36. Sledding with children/
Overshot my playfulness/
Collided with age/
#haiku

37. Clenching rope handles/
Spinning beyond all control/
Damaged ring finger/
#haiku

38. Regretting my ride/
Because I injured myself/
Shows a lack of faith/
#haiku

39. Staying young inside/
More important than safety/
For immortal* souls/
#haiku *eternal

40. Aging bodies recede/
To within our comfort zone/
Abandoning youth/
#haiku

41. Aches and troubles/
Of old immaturity/
Are truly priceless/
#haiku

42. Youthfulness’s worth/
Though dangerous to old men/
Keeps their spirits fresh/
#haiku

43. Adventure’s value/
Is an internal journey/
Exploring within*/
#haiku *our souls

44. The pains in my body/
Temporarily remind/
My mind I’m alive/
#haiku

45. This throbbing finger/
Beats the rhythm of my heart/
Where I can feel it/
#haiku

46. I regret nothing/
Because I’m educated/
By experience/
#haiku

47. While I don’t like pain/
It reminds me I’m alive/
Here to live for now/
#haiku

48. Wedding tourniquet/
The ring keeps my red blood in/
The heart of my life/
#haiku

49. Ring’s Symbol becomes/
An active agent in life/
I cherish it so/
#haiku

Lovers’ Lane’s Litter

49Ib. Lover’s lane litter/
“Super Sensitive: Bareback”/
(Cold the next morning)/
#haiku

49Ia. Lover’s lane litter/
“Extra Sensitivity”/
(Cold the next morning)/
#haiku

49II. Commercial lovers:/
Free-enterprise of desire/
(Fugitive feelings)/
#haiku

49III. Anonymous sex/
Along the #Queens #BQE/
Satisfies something/
#haiku

49IV. Industrial “love”/
Monetized sex relations/
Indict emptiness/
#haiku

49V. Erection assistance/
Cialis chemically/
Does what lust can’t do/
#haiku

How’m I Doing

9a. Rest In Peace Ed Koch/
The fighting for right and wrong/
At last leaves you peace/
#haiku

9b. Rest In Peace Ed Koch/
Your struggle for right and wrong/
At last leaves you: peace/
#haiku #rip #edkoch #nyc

9c. Mayor Koch has sunk/
The abyss called history/
Holds him for ever/
#haiku #rip #edkoch #nyc

9d. “How am I doing?”/
Bravely Asked Mayor Ed Koch/
‘Til the very end/
#haiku

Suspended in Now

11. Visit principal/
Over our suspended son/
Angry at school, boy/
#haiku

12. Defiance conforms/
To the personalities/
Confined by the rules/
#haiku

13. Supporting your child/
Sometimes means backing his school/
‘Gainst his righteousness/
#haiku

14. Resent procedure/
Of institutional might/
Still we require rules/
#haiku

15. Lines between “Ego”/
& organization’s needs/
Blurred by insecure/
#haiku

16. Rules offer guidelines/
But can be crude instruments/
When Ego’s involved/
#haiku

17. Papers need grading/
Though some students aren’t learning/
No matter the score/
#haiku

18. My Ego’s involved/
My prejudices stirred up/
Obedience rules/
#haiku

19. Accepting the rules/
From both sides of equation/
Will repress* Ego/
#haiku *stifle

20. Life is a blessing/
That is too hot to contain/
In neat containers/
#haiku

21a. Suspended in Now/
We struggle with G_d’s agar/
That keeps us alive/
#haiku

21b. Suspended in Now/
We submit to G_d’s agar/
That keeps us alive/
#haiku

Today’s Feelings

39. Fermenting my fears/
In the twisted still of doubt/
Creates a poison/
#haiku

40. We like to relax/
But respite causes us guilt/
So we criticize/
#haiku

41. I wrote a reply/
To postal correspondence/
Slower than email/
#haiku

42. My fears keep rising/
Inadequacy looms large/
(At least in my head!)/
#haiku

43. She apologized:/
A problematic pattern/
(I never minded)/
#haiku