The Toast Point Haiku Contest!
Entries from
April 1996
Full of summer hay
A wagon sways ready to fall
On some grateful horse
The writer comments:
"Driving on a highway I saw a flatbed truck full of bales of hay. It was
overloaded and slightly tipping. What could be a human disaster could be
unbelievable blessing from another viewpoint."
Praxis writes 04/30/96
Haiku, how are you,
Words no rhyme to reason out,
Thoughts to pique your doubt.
The writer comments: "What words can be spoken to ever say enough?"
The clouds left plenty
The ground most saturated
And the rain returns.
The writer comments: "Although one cannot turn off the faucet of nature, one can absorb
and use more than one thinks."
Apogee sunlight,
Eyes tired from window's glare,
Unable to see.
Silence billows,
With no reply, from
Mouth today.
"You huff and puff, dear.
It's hard to keep up, though Hugh
Heffner's my name. Whew!"
Intrigued and disturbed
By recipe: Joy of Cooking
Homemade marshmallows?
The Good and the Evil
A neverending battle
Who do I fight for?
Snaffoo writes 04/26/96
Black and silent world
From a dull agate eye
Dusky pearls fall
Rebel writes 04/26/96
Who left this tuna
In my fridge to rot, turn green?
Smelly fishy go!
How can I trust you?
You betrayed us all, hurt us
My soul is bleeding
He stepped on a cat
She suffocated a cat
I just sat and watched
Black cat, thirteen floors
I walked under the ladder
A mistake, I scream
My head is throbbing
Everything toppled on me
The ladder was gone
Everyone's crazy
Under (with some) a show of
Take-charge and sangfroid.
I've waited so long
Where am I placed in your life?
Deep inside your heart.....
I look left and right
I'm blinded by your false words
Do you really care?
Denied for so long -
Will our love surface again?
He's gone forever
Craig Wilcox writes 04/25/96
Wind blows through the trees
Blue birds fly happily off
Leaves float in the wind
Elvis Costello
Sang "Accidents Will Happen".
Then I broke my leg!
The phone rings three times.
The answering machine says
"I'm not there" it lies
My sister-in-law -
"I will speak to you later"
But she lies as well!
and a single...
Sheringham Beach is
The best place to see crab boats
Coming in sideways
Love comes quickly now
My cry slices through the air
Our love is over
The beutiful tree
A gift from Mother Nature
Yet, man cuts it down
Lowntlee Macintosh writes 04/24/96
The train thunders past
Tree stumps and men with chainsaws.
No leaves on the line.
The Sage comments: very nice for a first!
Under your fingers
The nectarines drop their skins
Like pale silk boxers
Protected sex - like
Sucking a candy still wrapped
Up in cellophane.
Unprotected sex -
Like eating British beef, but
With quicker results.
I asked a few friends
About this Geisha. Some said she
Would never bring it
Far with this vacuous
Look on her face. She should, at
Least, LOOK clever.
Others, however, fell for
This "heavenly stupid face",
As they put it.
I, for my part, do
Not understand this discussion
About a woman long dead.
The Sage comments: Long dead?
Remember: Comfort
The afflicted, and afflict
The comfortable.
Return to the womb?
Not me! I'm not going back
In whole or in part.
Namako writes
04/22/96
Spring's faint signs - like a
Stubborn wife's wan smile after
Long, sullen silence.
Lawnmowered rose patch
Lowered to its final form:
Beauty through life's pain
Bare twig in winter-
Ugly, brittle, useless mind.
Even spring seems cold.
Rhapsodomantic
Words like the calling of geese
Before Winter's chill
Hope silences me -
Sparrow silent when she eats;
She: food for my soul
Gold Mist writes 04/21/96
Is this a geisha?
Looks more like a tired housewife
Doomed to fan the air.
Toast Point responds:
A friend of Toast Point
Asked if the pictured geisha
Was a man in drag?
Amber writes
04/20/96
Bewildered, yet calm
The goldfish seeks food and light
But it is not near...
Patch of green velvet
Sprinkled with red polka-dots
Ripe apple orchard
It is quite curious:
Since some time, I donīt miss her.
Springtime, may be.
She, who was once the
Main part of my life, aqua
Vitae of mine existence.
Dear Sage: The Geisha
Looks good, but what on earth do
The inscriptions mean?
Wise is the Sage here,
But Japanese Characters?
Kivas asks too much!
The blur of light fills
The sky like a bowl of light
The final frontier.
In the wilderness
The wolves are howling for food
Nobody will help.
Texas writes
04/18/96
Sun like hot lava
Huge blueberry-colored clouds
Make the evening sky.
Maria Von Tramppe writes 04/18/96
The hills are alive
With the sweet sound of music
Nazis will come soon.
Does a God exist?
As working hypothesis
I'll take 'yes' - beats 'no'.
Testing graphics now
Japanese geisha on fan
Will users like it?
Sienje writes
04/16/96
Through the suffering,
beyond and below extremes---
the Song's always sung!
On a walk round the
Block, hyperventillating,
My dogma dropped dead.
Cornucopia writes 04/14/96
When young, I used socks,
Gloves; Mom's fur coat stood up by
Itself - no hangers.
Life seem meaningless?
Ask what your cat thinks. See it
Afresh through green eyes.
Your cow's gone dry, and
You don't know why? You should both
Listen to Mozart.
More powerful means
More observed means less free means
No satisfaction.
Life is a crystal
Humans, the children of God
Happy, until fate....
Droning honey bees
Labor in summer meadow
Frenzy and stillness
Change 'Altruism'
To 'Alfalsism' - boost Truth
In Advertising.
Standing knee-deep in
Thawed slime; wearing costumes for
Hunting Easter eggs.
It was cold and raw,
My nose ran; I stumbled oft, but
Found thirty-six eggs!
Later on, shivering
And febrile, I came to know:
Ted had found forty!
Coolaung writes 04/09/96
Near distant cold roads
Flies by larger trees than I
My well-fed hunter
Two cats, red and black,
Whining for their morning gruel
Weave within my way
on na no hito
kireina umi ni
shima ga imas
Well past painful dawn
Five birds twitter endlessly
Outside my window
On pretty pink lips
Velvet butterfly kisses
Wet a quivered sigh
Lenny writes
04/09/96
A roadside begger
Smoothly catches the orange
Tossed from a cab
Arthur Dent writes 04/09/96
Ecstatically
Reaches for the red button
Of a reindeer's nose.
Newborn cries, clutching
Eagerly to suckle warmth
From her ripened breast.
Marks on his collar
From her lips - blood-red - ling-
er on his knuckles.
When true friends part in
The mind memories like great
Bells reverberate.
After nightfall, a
Rosary of cottage lights
Agleam round the bay.
Though flesh is grass, it
Leaves cast-iron frying pans
As memory-joggers.
Mom's bridal photo:
Only one I've seen with smoke-
Emitting nostrils.
Blondes DO have more fun:
How many brunettes d'you see
With blonde roots showing?
"I clocked you at two
Hundred an hour!" "Didn't plan
To be out that long."
Rover writes
04/06/96
"BREAKFAST ANYTIME"
So I chose flapjacks during
The Enlightenment.
Gradually perky
Saturday sipping coffee
Brewed by my Wumpus.
As simple as can
Be, but no simpler. Got that,
Modigliani?
Holdout writes
04/05/96
"All right, all right, I'll
Butt out" [Inhale] Heaven, I
Hope, still allows you.
As firm and fibrous
As a coconut, and as
Hard to crack open.
Coffee shop clerk smiles
At child, her face muscles tweaked
By her ovaries.
One-tracked in her quest
For the holy crewel, she
Was wholly cruel.
Slicker writes
04/05/96
New York, the city
That never sleeps! (Why? because
They're afraid to sleep.)
Pearl, don't harbour a
Grudge....Turn down the Trinitron
And listen to me!
El Toro writes
04/05/96
Gore Vidal? I wish!
But so far only his works
Have entered the ring.
Good Friday again.
Bach's music dissolves hard hearts,
Erodes disbelief.
Kazumi writes
04/04/96
"It's nothing to look
At," she said to the faces
So strained and intent.
Cello Concerto
In G, multo fuoco:
One fingers, one bows.
I saw you dancing
With him last night. The dance-floor:
My heart. It still hurts.
Dear Sage, do I have
To print my address every time
I send a haiku?
The Sage replies:
Including address
Once per batch of your haikus
Is helpful to us.
Really, once a month
(The first haiku of the month)
Is quite sufficient.
Make sure, however,
That you check off the "Link Me"
Portion of the form.
For all his sins with
Others' wives, unknown, X does
Penance in his own.
Who's that third I see
Walking beside you. I thought
We two were alone.
Prince Andrew: "Hi, Koo."
"No time for verse." "Look, I'm Stark."
"Hey, cool! Then let's screw."
Nixon writes
04/02/96
Haahvud on the Chaahles -
Who can forget - or regret -
The Kennedy voice.
Eyes light and heart hums
And Cogito, ergo sum
By flipping a switch.
..with quarks unfettered,
into quiv'ring superstrings
my being dissolves...
Conifer writes 04/02/96
Nerve impulses no
Longer jump the synapses.
The leg moves no more.
Furtively the boy
Looks over his shoulder. All
Is clear - he eats snow.
DR ? writes 04/02/96
pLACE ONE GLOVED hanD
UPON YOUR HEART aNd ProMISE
Of ETernAL loVE.
Arthur Dent writes 04/02/96
Whisperingly call
Out her name into the nights
Scared she may answer.
A child no longer
plays in the park. Lies on his
Back the head weeping.
So suddenly came
A winter's storm one night, then
Crossed her face to mine.
Dominic writes 04/01/96
Frost twenty below:
Some say it's the wind, some not
Frost and lies of spring.
Magnetite/magnate
Tight; pyrite/pirate:- which is
It? Fool's gold/gold's fool?
ARTHUR DENT writes 04/01/96
Whisperingly call
Out her name into the night,
"Here Kitty, Kitty."
Awake and stretch to
Greet the dawn's light and to touch
Your dry lips to hers.
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