Here is the Poem of the Week for September 6, 2024–the text of it is below, and so is a bonus video of a single haiku.

I wrote some sonnets and a hymn this week as my daily poems, and also more of these “hai-nets” and for some reason they have been winning the Poem of the Week award recently. They are seven loosely linked haiku. They have traditional 5-7-5 syllable counts, but otherwise they are pretty loosely haiku, too.

I mention “empire” in this poem, which the ancient mountain poets regularly were fleeing from, and which I am, too, to the extent that I can. But it matters hugely who gets elected in this nation this November–HUGELY–so please join me in doing all you can with your voice and resources over the next two months. We want that “one good heart seed” to win. Please please please! Thank you!

mostly these neighbors
like a peaceful loving life
but news reaches here

past mountain poets
did not carry smart phones weren’t
tied to what they fled

what must people do
to be out of empire’s reach
satellites planes drones

old hermit logs on
password always “inthetao”
free heart takes hard work

too much to do too
much to do the barred owl hoots
then gets back to work

no matter who wins
good side bad side still each year
weeds threaten gardens

neighbors here tend land
all different kinds of beauty
from one good heart seed

9/4/24