Here are two poems from this week, which has been one of the hardest in our nation in my lifetime and maybe ever, between the debate a little over a week ago and two Supreme Court decisions that have been devastating to democracy and the rule of law and protection from the abuses of Presidents and big corporations. These two poems are both loosely-connected sequences of seven traditionally structured haiku. The structure of the seven is a little like a sonnet, with internal echoes and a turn in the middle, so I call them Hai-nets. The first is on grief, and the second on happiness, written out of my struggles through this week. The text is below, and I read them on the video.

some days too much grief
too little comfort until
the woods trail says come

back home in these trees
death turns to new life each step
old leaves new leaves nuts

sometimes even here
it’s too hot or loud jets jays
deep hemlock peace come

bear’s been here again
old monk leaves no stone unturned
to find what gives life

not welcome at home
with nothing anyone wants
dog finds a dense bush

high up the woods trail
deer cock ears blink but don’t run
if you’re here you’re home

if you go back down
share what you found the long view
what earth makes of grief

7/2/24

I love goldfinches
how they swoop yellow and black
they flash out happy

happy is hard now
news flashes and angry tones
but bird song dawn light

birds eat harmful bugs
then sing of hungry beaks fed
earth’s song of balance

old haiku poet
steps like deer out of dark woods
to flash like goldfinch

to have quiet joy
sometime each day sing out loud
hard rain frees stream flow

denial is good
in moderation sabbath
see eden here now

don’t tell goldfinches
gold empires plot their earth’s death
give love’s joy a chance

7/4/24