Scraps #1 - Haiku

Mindless Meandering Madness

Welcome to the scraps series!

This is where poems and ideas come to die.

Until the end of the year I will be working through the enormous backlog of crazy thoughts, prompts, field notes, poems/ideas/grand plans that never got finished/made the cut, and even the occasional Substack note that was too dangerous to post.

Thanks for your support throughout the year!

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HAIKU CHALLENGE

At some point early in the near I challenged all of Substack to a haiku battle via notes. The plan was to let them write the first one and respond on topic with on going exchange until the battle was over.

My strategy was simple. Keep my phone handy and make sure I was fast to respond so that it felt like it was always their turn. Wear them down..

Each one of these was my responses in the order I wrote them while challengers came and went until no one was left standing.

Anyway, I meant to make a post around then but put it off and have since lost the note in the endless scroll fest. It’s still there somewhere if you are super keen with 100 haikus on it. I’m sorry I couldn’t put it all together but it was really fun and I met a few great writers. (You know who you are).

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Pity is a curse
Placed upon the kindhearted
To teach them cruelty

Breaking free is hard
Hardest when we chain ourselves
Bound by reactions

Numbers mean nothing
Ariana has misjudged
Maybe eight thousand?

All too frequently
Tempted into destruction
Flies stuck in nectar

No disappointment
Can be found in a haiku
Only strange wisdom

Cleverness is good
Persistence even better
It wears out the fools

More than little drips
Bruce Lee said be like water
A raging torrent

No I missed that one
An American cliche
Hubris hides weakness

Bot or not my friend
My haiku will never end
Too much time to spend

Disintegration
Lost in waves of entropy
Will we find ourselves?

Jesus has gone home
Time is a cruel illusion
Wielded by the gods

Tricky science term
Deoxyribonucle-
Ick! It spilt on me!

I was blue inside
By merging with the ocean
A mirror to sky

Mirror to our breath
Listen to the ocean’s song
Endless melodies

Perhaps he’s fishing?
Lost on a distant road trip
Expecting a call?

Death is easiest
Given to withering hands
There is no escape

The Fathomless depths
Answer questions with questions
Men are deaf to truth

Shit is shit is shit
Everything feeds the garden
Men no different

(Very close to a Darby poem although I had forgotten that at the time, and was likely ripping off someone else)

Absolutely mate
Battle again anytime
Hope to hear from you

Friends offer no help
You cannot run from yourself
Lurking in shadows

Haiku is easy
Words pretending they matter
Confidence is hard

Fishing for answers
Trees listen to the river
Whispering coldness

Toads become princes
When washed in a lover’s kiss
Mirrors to earth’s light

Only Reflections
Empty is the true heaven
Hiding within us

Where breath meets a space
An exchange between spirits
Resonates as one

Sound in dispersion
Melts into oblivion
Memories remain

Separate but one
Holding hands beneath the waves
Islands all connect

All shapes rearrange
True essence is eternal
A bridge made of light

We are Yin and Yang
Koi fish twisting in shadows
Rotating through sun

Laughter may reveal
The true nature of someone
Speaking foreign words

Blood is always red
Hidden beneath shades of grey
No matter the man

Good roasts need gravy
Crunchy salted potatoes
Made myself hungry

Apple of the earth
Can a potato’s eye see?
A mashed destiny

When tasting with eyes
Colours are salt and pepper
Seasoning the soul

Slurping up our fates
Bodies become mushy bread
A meal for the earth

An outward pressure
Is projected from all things
Tickling our senses

Nothing is sweeter
Apple crumble universe
Ice cream scoops of time

Tasting of essence
Children run to fairy bread
Sugared Sensations

Mostly empty space
One can never just taste it
It must be devoured

Fairies are children
Before teeth flee their faces
Rot sets in early

Treasure hides in mouths
Kind words worth more than money
Love is common sense

Missing heads are fine
Nothing can contain a mind
Cumbersome bodies

Buzzing little flies
Tangled webs of nothingness
Why is it squirming?

Kindness is a gift
Fairies choke upon the truth
Wisdom stains their teeth

Chemicals or not
Wisdom teeth come out
Bleaching memory

Silk worms casting on
Knitting for their own pleasure
Wrigglers will wriggle

These nangs are banging!
Doof doof doof doof doof doof doof
I can’t feel my face!

Remaining apart
Threads are woven together
Eternal embrace

Transforming ourselves
With the music of texture
Endless becoming

Breath of the bucket
A claymation existence
Cow tipped and spinning

A farm with no gates
We are all cows at pasture
Who knew cows could paint?

Boisterous beats bounce
Becoming boundless beings
Beautiful ballads