Recently I went through a phase where I wrote a handful of small poems (not strictly haikus, just small poems in general). Figured I might as well share them here. I may come back and add additional entries if I get bored and write more…
LIMBO
You don’t know what you want
Can’t accept what you need
Can’t just relax either
So welcome to limbo…
NOW
Do not worry about
Writing everything down
Or getting it all out
Just worry about now
SELF-EXPRESSION
Desire to belong
Mixed in with the fear of
Overwhelming them all
But what more can you say?
You’re human, after all
SCIENCE & NATURE
The pureness of the past is important
As is the advancements of the future
We can have both, in this world we call home
SHORELINE COMMUNITY
Summer rolls around
The beach comes alive
People come and go
All with a story
All with a mission
A mission to feel
Feel alive again
Even if only
For just one last time
Cause every time counts…
The bars come alive
As do the cafes
And all the lodging
Arcades and whatnot
Music festivals
And more of the like
All with a purpose
A purpose to help
Help others to feel
Feel alive again…
But none of it lasts
All temporary
Only one season
One season per year
Before it all dies
Dies out once again
And only few remain
The few who belong
Who truly belong
The few born for it…
Those few aren’t you
Time for you to go
The shore won’t save you
Only one thing can
That one thing is you…
THE BOY & THE LAMPPOST
A small, old-fashion lamppost
In his grandmother’s backyard
He once played with it often
Way back in his toddlerhood
Now he visits, as a man
Passing by that same lamppost
But unable to recall
All that it once meant to him
Another piece of his youth,
Forgotten, nothing more than
A vague memory, fading…
EUROPE (HAIKU)
Good food and dry summers
Ancient buildings with character
All I took for granted…
INSOMNIA (HAIKU)
Sleepless nights
Over and over
But screw it…
MATTER
Every sentence must matter
Every line must matter
Every word must matter
Every moment must matter
In one way or another…
OVER/UNDER (HAIKU)
Big things are overrated
So focus on the small things instead
Small things are underrated…
BOOM & BUST
Many kingdoms consume each other
Until only a few remain
But then they become unstable
And fall apart
Into many kingdoms again…
MERGER (HAIKU)
Two universes
Secretly merged together
Now, memories clash…
JUST A FEELING
A bleak future, where all humans are sterile
A future where everyone is cloned
The population remains the same
Generation after generation…
You pass by someone familiar
Maybe the person you are cloned from
Knew the person that they were cloned from
Or maybe the people they were cloned
Were the ones who were really together…
Just a feeling…
EVIL ALWAYS RISES
Always a need to keep training
And always a need to prepare
Because evil always rises
No matter what form it may take
DAM HEIST
A dam is bombed, flooding a nearby town
All so that the cops would be too busy
To stop everything from being robbed
A once-in-a-lifetime diversion…
INFLUENCE
A spark, expanded with gasoline
Instead of being allowed to
Expand naturally, on its own…
THE BULL
Grab the bull by its sharp horns
Not to be its enemy
But to learn to work with it
AGING POLITICS
Personal politics
Becomes more central with age
For one reason or another…
HIGHWAY EXITS (HAIKU)
Entering a run-down town
Practically a different world
Dangerous, yet nostalgic
COMMUTE (HAIKU)
Underground transit
Ancient, yet still relevant
Proof of timelessness
BOSTON
Closest U.S. city to Europe
In a few different ways, in fact
A transition point, between two worlds…
DISTRACT (HAIKU)
You used to be my distraction
Now I need something to distract from you
Funny how the tables can turn
CHANCE
Isolation; calm and peaceful
…But connection may be better
Not essential, but nonetheless,
The chance of it is always there
However small that chance may be
IDLE
A fantasy world
One that never breaks down
Destined to be magical forever
But also destined to never develop
For development only leads
To the end of the magic…
ECHO LAND
The Wild West, land of no rules once more
Since the fall of the U.S. government…
A young woman stands there alone, watching
As ravagers take away all her land
Land which had belonged to her family
For too many generations to count…
She recalls her parents once telling her
How it all once belonged to the natives
Until her ancestors came and took it
Funny how things come and go in echoes…
NEW JERSEY
Deep forests, humid in the summer
Maybe a gas station here and there
Contrasted with expensive beaches
And rusty cities, some riddled with crime
But mostly suburbs, always the same
…And yet, there’s something to admire
A nostalgia, that can’t be explained…
SIDEQUESTER
The other heroic knights
Make me do their “dirty work”
In this vast, magical land…
But being the “sidequester”
Has perks, believe it or not
Less pressure to live up to…
WHO SAYS?
Find your own small corner of the world
So you can be peacefully alone
Cause who says you need other people?
BLUE BLOOD (HAIKU)
This ain’t the Middle Ages
Nepotism is no longer praised
Quite the opposite, in fact…
SURVIVAL MODE (HAIKU)
Sometimes relaxation
And the human need to survive
Can be one and the same…
CASH (HAIKU)
Driven by money
When you should simply relax
Let life take its course…
CENTRAL PARK
Seemingly normal at first
But look closer
At the stones between the greenery
For ruins of a world long gone…
LAND OF SILENCE
A community founded by the deaf
Now their descendants speak only in sign
No need for the sounds of their voices
Whatever those sounds may be…
TRUCKER
His wheels are his home, his shelter
Typical diners, his nourishment
But what more could ever be needed?
BEHIND THE GIANT
A small, colonized moon
Orbiting a gas giant world
Moon-dwellers, exposed to sun for months
And then left in darkness for months
Darkness, when the crazies come out to play
When the vulnerable must be on their toes
Around the clock, until they see the sun again…
OTHERS (HAIKU)
We want to show others
How much we have changed over time
Not always an option…
NOTEBOOKS (HAIKU)
Too many notebooks
I need to fill them all up
The answer? Poems…
MODERNISM (HAIKU)
Europe, older than the U.S.
Yet still somehow a fair bit more advanced
At least in certain ways, that is…
ANCIENT (HAIKU)
Poetry
The most ancient form
Of “word art”…
BLESSING/CURSE
I see a gorgeous river
On my way to work each day
Reminder of my blessings
Despite all of my curses…
HAIKU PURPOSE (HAIKU)
Say as much
As you clearly can
In few words…
VITAL (HAIKU)
Sadly, pain is vital
Because only pain can create
Art that is truly great…
FEW (HAIKU)
Only a few friends
Will ever truly get you
But “few” is a lot…
FORCED TO STAND BACK (HAIKU)
A monster you can’t defeat
And a loved one you cannot protect
No matter what others say…
RED FLAGS
Friend becomes enemy
Secrets given away…
Learn to notice red flags
Gradually over time…
SOLITARY VALUE (HAIKU)
Peace and quiet
The only solution
Sometimes, that is…
BLURRED LINES (HAIKU)
Good and evil
Difference is hard to see
In the real world…
INSPIRATION (HAIKU)
Find your place of inspiration
And stay there until inspiration strikes
No matter how long it may take…
DOES NOT EQUAL (HAIKU)
Elders deserve respect
But age does not equal wisdom
Even within sound minds…
GHOSTS (HAIKU)
How can ghosts even haunt people now?
When most of us choose to live alone these days?
Glued to televisions and phone screens…
PARADISE LOST (HAIKU)
Sometimes, all it can take
Is just one, tiny little thing
To ruin paradise…
CHECKPOINT
A large, metal cylinder lands on Pluto
The furthest human outpost to date
Large, metal arms extend from the vessel
Ripping fuel and steel from buildings nearby
Soon enough, the alien ship completes its work:
An exact replica of itself
One which then takes off flawlessly into space
Landing on the Neptune moon of Triton
The second-furthest human outpost to date…
POETRY GOAL
To write a poem every day,
Or every other.
Can it not be done?
Only time could tell!
Though I highly doubt…
HINDSIGHT (HAIKU)
I thought that I had
Problems when I was younger
Little did I know…
A DIFFERENT WAY (HAIKU)
I am still productive
Still making the most out of life
In a different way…
BURN
Hands burning to do something else
Voice burning to be someone else
Mind burning to be somewhere else
Eyes burning to see somehow else
Alas, reality burns, just the same…
CHANGE?
Do people really change?
Or just get better at hiding who they are?
Either way, loose things connect
The new you and old you…
KNOW-IT-ALL
If someone calls you a know-it-all
They are probably just insecure
Because they do not know much themselves
Nevertheless, sometimes we must let
Everyone else just think what they want…
But sorry that I know more than you…
LOST TALENT (HAIKU)
A talent gone to waste
Cause of things beyond their control
Their fans are in their head…
SCATTERSHOT
What everyone forgets to say, is that
There’s something beautiful about it all
But all beauty is cursed
So remember the beauty, recreate it
Using the canvas of the sky
Hear the songs that connect the world together
Connect the dots that aren’t really there
I see the old you in there, somewhere
What makes you sad is what makes you great
You sat back as the moment flew by
And now that moment’s gone
So all you can do now is wait
For another moment to come along…
ACID DAMAGE
I only think about one thing now
You say it’s easy to overcome
But tell that to the boy
Who thinks he’s a banana now…
IT TAKES AN OCEAN
See my own eyes reflecting me
Everywhere that I look now
A price worth paying, though
Cause it can take an ocean
Just to make a diamond…
UP & DOWN (HAIKU)
All you do is frown
Cause I know how to go up
And you just go down…
BROODING ARTIST
You can hear her talent thru her sickness
The idiot-genius, still at work
Nothing left now but pencil scratches
And blood curling on the shower floor
I bet you couldn’t understand
Even if you really tried…
“Brooding Artist” ain’t a good look
Not for all of us, at least…
FLAW
Can’t even protect the ones you love
Or the ones who love you…
Can’t even tell you how far I’ve come
But everyone can see who I really am…
Spazzing out to no end…
YOU VS. ME
Who you trying to be? Me?
Well honestly, at this point
You do me better than I do…
JUNKIE (HAIKU)
Nowhere else left to go to
Loving every calorie now
Indifferent to it all…
GUITAR (HAIKU)
Strings older than I know
Coded with rust and odor
All somehow still intact…
RIVER PHOENIX
Trying to stay one step ahead of fate
Learning the rules, just to break them
It’s a shame no one else heard your voice
So get to the core of your mind
To find what you really need
And just keep doing what you do
Cause what does scaring people really get you?
NOW & THEN
Not my place
To make someone feel ashamed
Of who they were
Or who they are now…
And now can I see
Where you were coming from
What you were chasing, and still are…
BAD & GOOD
Thoughts from “bad me”
Only to be refined
By the “good me”
PRESENT (HAIKU)
This is my way
Of letting the world know
That I’m still here
HAIKU (HAKIU)
There’s always a way
To turn something into art
Even three lines works…
ATTENTION (HAIKU)
I still pay attention
More than I had done so, before
Both for better and worse…
BREAKUP
Sometimes people need
To just say goodbye
Before they can grow
I don’t have a choice
But at least the pros
Still outweigh the cons…
LUST OVER LOVE
Let’s live for the wind and the stars
I swam an ocean to hear with my eyes
And see with my tongue
I crawled around for the wrong reasons
But don’t we all, sometimes?
Who says love is the only thing
We need to think about?
Who says we can’t prioritize
Lust over love?
DIG DEEP
And now I’ve become the very thing
That I said I would never be
And now I gave to work to bring
Myself back to what was still me
Gotta dig deep to dig your way out…
Tune out the voices around
Make sure your feet stay on the ground
Am I losing my way?
Listen to the world that’s all around
Don’t lose your way…
NO NEED
I don’t need you to understand
Cause I don’t care anymore, anyway…
I don’t care if you don’t understand
Cause I don’t need you to anymore, anyway…
MAKE THE MEANING
Five fingers on each hand
For the five years I knew you
Three times I messed up
Three strikes, I’m out
Life won’t give you meaning
You have to make the meaning
Even if it only makes sense to you…
MENTORS (HAIKU)
Find many mentors
Filter out all of their flaws
And combine their strengths…
Peace!
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