•Gypsy in the Moonlight• Haiku Review



Just finished reading

*Gypsy in the Moonlight:* great

mystery novel

Set in Trinidad

History & Mystery

Bringing them to life

Trinidadian’s

Unique culture of mixing

Brought into focus

Novel of struggles

Before globalization

made us so wealthy

The civilized life 

Of ice boxes and credit

How people once lived

The detective lives

Between two worlds: Trinidad

Native and expat

Colonial traps: 
Collaborate or resist
He avoids nicely

Carnival pan drums

Wartime Litter Invention

“Trini Creation”

Lawrence Waldron Writes

A novelized history

Overlooked greatness

One thing missing

Is righteousness rewarded

Some wealth & respect





*The Sympathizer* Haiku Review

An epic novel
About idealism
& humanity

Viet Than Nguyen’s

Novel *The Sympathizer*

Teaches us to watch

From “Viet Nam’s” war

Back to lust’s true religion

To “his” conception

“He’s” anonymous

Making his particulars

More universal

Just like Ishmael

Anonymous narrator

Waxes Poetic

Racial digression

Of his “miscegenation”

(Muddied purity)

“Not half anything[:]

You’re twice everything”

His mother explained

(Nguyen 134)

Nguyen’s spy novel

Plumbs America’s sad depths

in literature

Ellison, Melville

Hawthorne, Douglass, Poe, Hurston

All resonate here

American id:

“Anti-Transcendentalist?”

“Existentialist?”

“Torture” of “nothing”

Crystallized America

& optimism

(Nguyen 366)

Yankee Paradox:

Our Revolutionary

Impulses now dead

Now America’s

The cruel Torturous Empire

Unseen to itself

A fantastic read

Airy prose is ballasted

With weight of great thoughts

•Dear White People• Haiku Review

Saw “Dear White People”/
An interesting film/
Provoked some thinking/
#Haiku

Impulse was perfect/
Execution uneven:/
Some great film making/
#Haiku

The deconstruction/
Of privilege was perfect/
On both sides of race/
#Haiku

At the same moment/
Race was remade and unmade/
Inescapable/
#Haiku

The sterling writing/
Couldn’t escape the archetypes/
Make real characters/
#Haiku

The stereotypes/
Of villains didn’t bother/
Flat protagonists/
#Haiku

At the same moment/
“Types” were dissected it showed/
Additional “types”/
#Haiku

Identified “types”/
Though both clever & witty/
Just couldn’t escape/
#Haiku

•After the Prophet• (Haiku Review)

After the prophet haiku review

37. •After the Prophet•/
“Tale of Sunni-Shia split”/
Annoyed me greatly/
#haiku

38. Three-Fourths “Game o Thrones”/
Ancient political fights/
(Ignoring our World)/
#haiku

39. A readable book/
Of humanity’s foibles/
Islam’s beginnings/
#haiku

40. Covering the start/
Without much magical faith/
Erases beauty/
#haiku

41. No explanations/
Of the rituals’ meanings/
Focuses on men/
#haiku

42. There were no motives/
For anyone’s behavior/
Worthy of scripture/
#haiku

43. Most facts obscure truths/
Lessons of human nature/
Are rarely divine/
#haiku

44. Hazelton’s book won’t/
Make connections between “now”/
& Islam’s first years/
#haiku

45. “After” erased/
Millennia’s behavior/
& implications/
#haiku

46. Chapter 15 STARTS/
To cover politics/
Of modernity/
#haiku

47. Showing the motives/
Of living malefactors/
Renewal of hater/
#haiku

48. I want a good book/
Contemporary motives/
Hatred’s revival/
#haiku

49. This book simplifies/
History to justify/
These stereotypes/
#haiku

•In The Heart Of The Sea• (haiku review)

33. Finished history/
Of whaling shipwreck •Essex•/
(Cannibalism)/
#haiku

34. The Inspiration/
For Melville’s book •Moby Dick•/
Was a gripping read/
#haiku

35. Interestingly/
The Blacks were eaten up first/
(Not those who jumped ship)/
#haiku

36. A heroic tale/
Of 19th Century life:/
“Life” wasn’t easy/
#haiku

37. Industrial life/
Aboard floating factories/
Of cetacean death/
#haiku

38a. Wealth cheapens living:/
The search for portable oil/
Displaced men’s labor/
#haiku

38b. Before oil reading/
Required tallow candles made/
Slowly, locally/
#haiku

38c. The cost of reading/
Or any nocturnal light/
Was prohibitive/
#haiku

39a. Ingenious workers/
Industrialized murder/
To enrich a few/
#haiku

39b. Ingenious workers/
Industrialized murder/
To light people’s nights/
#haiku

40. Whale oil lit the night/
Of Victorian bedrooms/
Permitting reading/
#haiku

41. The value of light/
So widely squandered today/
Was a luxury/
#haiku

42. Fine Parlor reading/
Made necessary whale oil/
Ere petroleum/
#haiku

43. Species’ destruction/
That some few might read at night/
(Free-market logic)/
#haiku

44. Men worked factories/
Floating charnel pyres making/
Convenience back home/
#haiku

45a. Inhumane danger/
Is the skeleton of ease/
In whaling’s lamp-light/
#haiku

45b. Inhumane danger/
Is the skeleton of ease/
(Modern convenience)/
#haiku

46. Like petroleum/
Labor is concentrated/
In oily barrels/
#haiku

47. Like petroleum/
We endanger some species/
So some can get rich/
#haiku

48. The logic of wealth/
Rationalizes taking/
For some to have more/
#haiku

49. Whalers risked their lives/
On floating slaughterhouses/
For decent payouts/
#haiku

50. We risk the planet/
For digital convenience/
Fueled by whaling’s heirs/
#haiku

51. The planet marches/
Down the path oil’s wealth has paved/
(Ease “über allës”)/
#haiku

52. The Essex’s men/
Three months at sea without aid/
Lived heroically/
#haiku

53. Difficult living/
Impossible to survive/
There is much to learn/
#haiku

*Man Gone Down* by Michael Thomas Haiku Review

*Man Gone Down*
by Michael Thomas
Haiku Review

1. Starting *Man Gone Down*/
Gently riveting to me/
(I “Identify”)/
#haiku

2. Confronted by youth/
The youth that hides in novels/
With happy sadness/
#haiku

3. Fiction converges/
With readers’ realities/
History revised/
#haiku

4. “Strange… to go through life/
A social experiment/
Understanding… Gone”/
#haiku (Thomas 99)

5. “You can tell when someone’s been loved; they don’t question its presence, nor do they despair when it seems to be gone” (Thomas 165).

6. Three hundred pages/
Of fearing his decisions/
Vicariously/
#haiku

7. Protagonist’s life/
Both Virtuous & sinful/
Flirts with disaster/
#haiku

8. Faithful to his wife/
Staying sober, kind & fair/
When cheating is rife/
#haiku

9. Crazy decisions/
Like evading a mistress/
Are perfectly right/
#haiku

10. “I was born a poor/
Black boy of above av[‘]rage/
Intelligence[: CURSE]” /
#haiku (Thomas 216)

11. The Expectations/
Placed upon Smart Black People/
Prove to be unfair/
#haiku

12. “Representing” Blacks/
Burdens folk who need to live/
Simply for themselves/
#haiku

13. “Representative/
Man” must undo and fulfill/
All stereotypes/
#haiku

14. Protagonist can’t/
Simply exist for himself/
He lugs history/
#haiku

15. Meditative run/
Through the Brooklyn Bridge’s ribs/
Explored though nicely/
#haiku

16. Digressions of thought:/
Thinking man in thoughtless world/
Explored New York well/
#haiku

17. Manual labor/
Suspends thinking men in toil/
This book explores that/
#haiku

18. Texture of labor/
The Psychology of work/
Is rarely explored/
#haiku

19. The isolation/
Of immigrants languages/
Exposed in this book/
#haiku

20. Job sites’ loyalties/
Along and across language/
Was a nice detail/
#haiku

21. Surrendering job/
With a violent outburst/
To keep pride was nice/
#haiku

22. Swimming under the bridge/
Like a weird aquatic troll/
Strange symbolism/
#haiku

23. Impossible acts/
Of the damaged superman/
Kept me reading on/
#haiku

24. When he cheats golfers/
He falls to earth a human/
Though they needed it/
#haiku

25. Boston backstory:/
Old Friends on the edge expose/
Promise’s burden/
#haiku

26. He survives for friends/
Not the noble ideas/
Placed upon his skin/
#haiku

Man of Steel Haiku Review

Superman Haiku Review

1. I Liked the first half/
Interesting alternate/
Krypton backstory/
#haiku

2. Good production design/
Krypton’s parallel of earth/
Though clumsy green points/
#haiku

3. Politics’ Absence/
Was strangely highlighted by/
Light skinned black gen’rals/
#haiku

4. Did not like the suit/
Sent by Jor El predicting/
His hero status/
#haiku

5. Kryptonite metal/
Was anything from Krypton/
Should have proved fatal/
#haiku

6. Paradoxically/
I liked the “S-Key” tying/
Krypton to present/
#haiku

7. Hollywood action/
Swallowed the movie’s last half/
With gross Air-Force-Porn/
#haiku

8. Immigrant status/
Of Kal-El bothered no-one/
Because he was white/
#haiku

9. Liked the destruction/
Of the spy predator drone/
Comments on freedom/
#haiku

10. *Man of Steel* movie/
Was not without some fissures/
I’ll give it”B+”/
#haiku

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

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

*Searching for Sugarman* haiku review

Finally went to see *Sugarman* and liked it. But I had some questions about race. I know I am too touchy, but I couldn’t figure out why he went back to Detroit. Also the only villain was the producer, a black guy, in a movie made by liberal South African whites. (& what happened to the daughters’ mother?)
“Things that make you go hmmm”

Here is my haiku review:

Rodriguez

1. Modern fairy tale:/
Was “Searching for Sugarman”/
Some late onset fame/
#haiku

2. Sixto Rodriguez/
Recorded in ’70/
Discovered later/
#haiku

3. A riveting tale/
Of the humility found/
In a working soul/
#haiku

4. The curious thing/
Was his return to Detroit’s/
Anonymity/
#haiku

5. Celebrity calls/
The insecure drop their lives/
Into the hopper/
#haiku

6. Who has the courage/
To reject celebrity?/
Only the righteous/
#haiku

7. Rodriguez returns/
To a shabby hometown love/
Inexplicably/
#haiku

8. Perhaps Rodriguez/
Saw the fame as gossamer/
Krynoline beauty/
#haiku

9. I was so surprised/
The only villain was Black/
And the only Black/
#haiku