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CAMPUR (MALAY WORD FOR POTPOURRI
next-door professor
confesses it's more difficult
to teach three-year-olds
lone journey - seeing myself
all the time in the opposite
passenger's sunglasses
old drawer
a lizard's egg jumps
from a bundle of love letters
over the snow
in the wind, a flock of cranes
land, flap their wings,
cry, their bills pointing
directly into sky
joe pees into roses
as granny says he can
help in watering garden
rooftop estacy dance -
the pigeon flaps in triumph
as its tail goes down to its mate
marriage candles
flicker to newly-wed's
red hot passions
chinatown
a red rose waves at me
from a flat's verandah
in the graveyard
crickets serendading
the dead
after the rain
playing a guessing game
over toad's and frog's croaks
dusk - we hug and kiss
below the palm trees
unwary that the beach
is all long shadows and
that ours hit the entrance of a house
comma-shaped leaves
rustle now and then--
the beauty of pauses
insecticide
the unschooled farmer
concocts a silent killer
united nations
formed specially to hear
human-rights abuses
election -
sincere promises
for the ears only
crossing the pacific
reading tomorrow's newspaper
in the sky
mid-autumn
at the redlight
all the full moons on windscreens
in Kelantan - peeping through
bullet holes in coconut tree
at Japs' landing point
a war turns sweet
for Japanese general
advancing his love in human origins
superstitious mom
daughter reprimanded for
removing mole on nape
born out of wedlock
and down the toilet bowl
it goes cries and all
a dry patch
a bloom clings on to life
expecting the rain
barber asked about
his business replies:
"Well, do you see a lot of hair?"
Van Gogh's Sunflowers
His child laughs: "This looks like
my friend's work."
his warm saliva
lingering on my cheek
as he trails off
for the last time
the smart taps of his shoes
reciting rosary
in the chapel
the candles flicker to our verses
pouted lips -
stealing mom's lipsticks
for all the experiments
Wow, this IS a potpourri! There's so much in here I could comment on. I'm going to have to bookmark your page so I can read all your haiku and tanka. A wonderful poet, Loren Kleinman, recently graced our venue with some of her works, and among them was a tanka that reminded me why I first fell in love with the Japanese form-poems . . . to some they would seem utterly simplistic, and yet it's possible to create a colossal impact into such small forms . . . you seem to work them all remarkably well!