haiku notebook endlessnightfall.com
This page is a copy
of a poem notebook
that contains all sorts
of haiku, including
alternate versions:
it was a workbook for
my own use. There are
some poems here that
I haven't put anywhere
else; for instance I've
always liked one poem
that sums up my feelings
about Willoughby:
old house on an old street
a woodchuck darts
under the porch
It might not be poetry, but
I like it anyway -
whatever it is.
Many of these poems
appear in the rengas
(called renkus these
days, I noticed),
and many appear on the
other website pages. But
I'm making a copy of
the notebook here
partly because I'm
afraid I might lose my
paper copies. You might
find some among these
poems that you prefer
above anything else
on the website pages.
I have trouble deciding
which I like or hate,
beyond a few of my
favorites and a few
of the failures (and
even the failures
might possibly
be transformed
with a word); and
therefore I've
copied the
entire notebook,
even repeating some
poems from other
pages, because they
look different in a new
setting; but to a
great extent these
are new poems that
appear only here.
This page is continued
on the Haiku Notebook 2
page.
HAIKU NOTEBOOK
gardener's compleynt:
crinkled winter-kale
kitchen sink washing
caterpillar
in the black water-puddles
trembling with time
rotting autumn leaves
Lake Erie:
the beach at twilight
after all these years
lonlier
old house burning
by the railroad tracks
summer moon
Chinese screen:
cackling at the sight
of the five wrinkled sages
cackling together
railroad train
through a veil of snow
passing
< The Willoughby graveyard:
Bea Lyman 1920-1991
Ruthie Goebbel 1926-1990
Lillian Mele 1915-1994
Spring twilight and a full moon
over the gravestones
a robin's evening song>
alone in the darkness
of a rainy night
a light comes on next door
after the sledding hill's rosy faces
the deep silence
of the woods
..............................
to the blossoms
come and gone
hummingbird
morning heat
the dog next door
keeps on barking
drifting drifting
nowhere drifting
dark to dark
the end of summer
waves pounding the beach
sunlight on the sand
torn-off leg
just a
cricket
theory of art:
"accidentally -
on purpose"
beaver lodge
at dusk
snow falling
(snow falling
beaver lodge
in the dark)
an evening in Spring
swamp water rippling
after the heron is gone
(evening
swamp water rippling
after the heron is gone
an evening in spring
Spring evening
evening)
the footsteps stop
outside my door
cold winter night
international airport
over the runway
leisurely hawk
a night-warbler
far-off thunder
the rainy dark
a little sprig
from the trunk of the tree
cherry blossoms
a few leaves tremble
the snowy deer tracks
lead into the depths of the forest
perfectly still in the woods
deer-like
watching the deer
a morning in Spring
even in the backyard
tangled in briars
woodsmen meeting at dusk
in the Spring woods
whisper
wind outside rustling the leaves
I lie here naked
in the breezy room
old house on an old street
a woodchuck darts
under the porch
mud creek in the woods
fifties Chevy
the roof still shows
Christmas Eve
lifting the shade
the snowy night
.............................................................................
white out blizzard's
clouds of snow
somehow not so
lonely now
beyond the world
silent the hawk looks down
soaring on the autumn wind
+ more delicate
than real blossoms
the first snow of
a thousand years +
(or - the first
snow of the year)
maple bud's sparrow
hops to another branch
oh the other sparrow
white trilliums
ephemeral flitting
shadow of the fly
(or - on the
trilliums)
from the mossy log
silver belly frog
into the black swamp
Christmas Day
lonliness
watching the snow fall
Paul's intelligent bright eyes -
"We'd be at each other's throats."
a picnic table
all alone
in the summer rain
NYC:
"All-Nite Beverage"
idling white Corvette
April moon
(Dec 2008)
Elegy
old woman trudging
past a parking lot
in the blizzard
a warm spell
everywhere appearing -
snowmen!
(everywhere appear outside
a warm spell
the town is full of -
snowmen!)
Mexican farmhand
joyfully singing
old truck bouncing by the creek
cold morning sunlight
without a breeze
crocuses trembling
fly zooms in the door
zooms back out again
a Spring day
two schoolgirls walking along
Spring drizzle>
(having picked somebody's flower
two schoolgirls
(in the ) Spring drizzle)
( important that they took it from somebody's yard
something along these lines)
having picked somebody's flower
two schoolgirls
in the Spring drizzle
here I am
a non-existent being in a non-existent universe
profound loniness
< at the Cleveland Museum of Art
(each line is the title of a painting)
1.
Mists and clouds over the rivers Ziao and Ziang,
Streams and mountains without end:
Scholar in the mountains
(Cloudy mountains)
Greeting the Springtime.
2.
Prunus in moonlight -
Listening to the bamboo,
Bamboo in the wind.
(prunus is plum blossom)
plum blossom in moonlight
listening to the bamboo
bamboo in the wind
.................
< daintily taking a step
great blue heron
(heat and silence)
transparent river (water)
daintily taking a step
Great Blue Heron>
great blue heron
daintily taking a step
transparent river >
doctor's office, waiting
silent, tiny
spider climbs the wall
(silent room & me)
black and white spider
by the side-door stoop
this morning's spiderweb
jewels of dew
beware cliche' *
hot day
and a nice long splash in the birdbath
tiny sparrow
< roar of the
Interstate
sunlight in the
forest glade>
summertime robin
perched on the aluminum lawnchair
like he owns it
helicopter in a bee-line
reminds me of once
a tiny turtle headed
straight down the river
spring snow howling
snug in the warm house
and peaceful
...(from outside)
crickets chirping
lighted room
curtains rising up
(raising)
on the empty clothesline
in the sunlight
clothes-pins bag
in the sharp breeze
every blossom trembling
cherry branch
in the flashlight beam
swaying
slender flowers
biting Spring wind
dazzling sunlight
makes me sort of happy
terrifying hot weather
not a sparrow to be seen
"secret nature" dreams
waking up
warm rains
with the gentle rain on the roof
quietly waiting
(autumn) nightfall
with the gentle rain on the roof
quietly waiting
nightfall
< some of these notes, back to
the helicopter, sound like notebook
jottings... the clothes pins bag goes
way back and was a genuine mystical
epiphany however, although it no
longer seems like much to me...
a mystical moment doesn't make
a mystical poem, not always>
sweltering night's morning -
a girl's doll
in a swing on the porch
sweltering nights
a girl's doll
in a swing on the porch
stretch your wings
backyard firefly
it's a new morning
crummy Willoughby bar's
back door
daffodils in bloom
(old man)
laughs to see
snow's backyard rabbit -
still kickin'
<(NYC)
-2008, "Some Other Spring"
Spring moon
the young Billie Holiday
singing in the dark>
NYC my mother
remembering the
parakeet's body
on the bottom of the cage
...........................................................................................
chipmunk
deep in the woods
scampers away to hide
Great Blue Heron disappears
around a river bend -
Grandfather!
snake slithers off the bank and into the river swimming
impromptu
(tangled) wild perfumed fields in the heat
twittering birds
summer's end once more
childhood's summer's end once more
tangled perfumed fields
twittering birds (in the heat)
summer's end (once more)
the empty air
the cold with snow in it
brilliant days of darkness
season of dark
cold with snow in it,
season of dark -
the empty air
the old beaver dam
2 7 Great Blue Herons
flap up into the sky
the dark woods -
lighted gas station
at dusk
lighted gas station
at dusk
the dark woods (use in Ohio
Renga as "a memory"
otherwise not, of course)
(her beauty -)
the Spring moon
luminously
sleeping
hopping toad
in my headlights
midnight on a
rainy road
old man coughing
climbing the stairs of the rooming house
autumn rains (cold , winter)
(1971) Willowick
warm sunlight in the window
the blue sky
a rabbit track in the snow
improvisations
NYC
brisk chill Upper West Side neon twilight
the ages come to this
I feel on my cheek the last twinkling points of rain
in the chilly dark
O bright abyss
my lost New York
it all fits together -
like a starry night
ten floors of golden lights
the lonely cars
Henry, where were we?
who>
the new apartment house
not all the windows are lighted
a button missing -
my overcoat
from the old days
in my schoolbus
fifty children all
with different colored caps
the mailbox empty
I hear the wind in the trees
and the butterflies
the state hospital
bars on the windows
a face looks out at the swamp
lonliness (in me)
a world without love
on a winter night
1st snow frightens birds
NYC footprints in the snow
keeping up with me
the one dog rests his chin
on the other dog's warm back
Christmastime
1st snow
d ark houses
one spotlight on a pole
the window
melts in the rain
the houses drowsy
with lights>
vacant old roadside store
sparrows playing (ticking)
in the gutters
daffodil
by the fence
schoolbell rings
is it sweet or bitter?
this coffee
Improvisations
1.
He flopped down on the sofa in his coat
And put his legs over the sofa back.
"She wasn't there. She didn't show up," he said,
And covered his eyes (up) with the overcoat.
2.
"Well, where have you been?"
"I haven't done nothing."
"Oh yes you have. Why do you try
To pull that little girl shit with me?"
I put my hand under her skirt and pressed.
.......................................................................................
the long summer night
a cricket chirping
somewhere in the garden
Indian sumac (scarlet)
a train clacketing by
then far away
scarlet Indian sumac
a train clacketing by
then far away
by the brick school closed-up now
a worn patch of dirt
under the old pine
old photographs 19th century photos
expressionless (staring)
grade-school children
staring in eternity
19th century photos
schoolchildren
staring in eternity
NYC
a full moon
above the cheap hotel
in Hoboken
in the bar donstairs
talking, glasses clinking
at the schoolbus stop by the woods
a bookbag>
(a morning in May
a bookbag
at the schoolbus stop by the woods
(at the wooded schoolbus stop)
at the schoolbus stop)
a morning in May
a bookbag
at the schoolbus stop
chimneys with white smoke
Orion strides across
the star-bright sky
Willowick, 1971
on the white car
a maple leaf
summer rain
19th century photographs
elementary schoolchildren
staring in eternity
19th century photos
schoolchildren
staring in eternity
He pokes her belly, "What's in there?"
"My baby." "There's no baby." "Baby."
cold night of the full moon
my alarm clock ticking
I hear the chimes from next door.
I look up to see
my old winter coat
hung on the back of the chair
I look up to see
my old winter coat
on the back of the chair
a small green caterpillar
in endless time suspended
climbing a thread of sunlight
vast night of twinkling stars
Plato, brilliant Plotinus
think of
nipped my thumb( with the hammer)
cat licks the blood
from the 2x4
he lets go the beam
the weight of the wood!
we're hammering on the roof
on the hood of the car
a white cup
Improvisations
as he enters their room,
"I just remembered,"
the door shuts behind him
I blow my nose
"What?" my mother calls
from downstairs July 1975
Spring
the whole town
is bright and airy
water clear as glass
Monarch butterfly
pebbles on the bottom
Hemingway "clear as air"
above the cold hibachi
blanketed with snow
withered sunflowers
a streak of light
she whispers
"I saw a shooting star"
maroon car
on the roof of the house
"Ray's Auto Wrecking"
among the green waterplants
the clear bright water
black tadpoles wiggling
sunflowers by the picket fence
inside the little house
the telephone rings and rings
while I sit quietly in the sunlight
an ant crawls
over the blanket
NYC - 59th St. (I wished her good luck.)
<"I'll need it."
The young black harlot (whore)
getting out of my cab>
we were silent together all the way
through the park in one of the most gorgeous
violet hours of my life going down to 59th
& its towers with lights 1968
NYC
New Years Eve
I notice my dark shadow
on the wall
..............................................................................
windows lighted (up)
Halloween skeletons
bright stars in the sky
Oct 20, 80
in the sunny kitchen
my mother
laughs to herself
sitting in the room sitting in the night
with the tv on
I begin to smile
Robert Lowell? We were always safe
I was born to be given away
bumblebee by the window
shimmering with sunlight
a balmy Spring day
sweeping the porch steps
puttering around
the spring breeze in the curtains
he sits by himself
and thinks of nothing
indoors lamp-lighted
night-crickets chirping
curtains lifting up
(see earlier)
a hot day
behind the machine shop
cottonwoods and barbed wire
(love poem)
reading by moonlight (flashlight)
at the wide-open window
my heart sighs for love
an old man walking home
at evening
leaving tracks in the snow
NYC
from the platform of the El
the rooftops of Brooklyn
and the stars
NYC
lilacs in the rain
and where am I?
exhausted in a dingy room
a vacant old roadside store
a sparrow hops
in the broken window
vacant roadside store
a sparrow hops
in the broken window
...........................................................................
plaid notebook -
joyful in the morning
I went behind the greenhouse
and heard in the woods
the hermit thrush
and I began to weep
when hearing in the woods
the hermit thrush
I began to weep 30 April 90
floating in the green
sunlighted water -
crickets chirping in the woods
out in the blizzard
a stray dog
squatting to shit
...a strange bird in the woods
(by) along the river
on an autumn morning
on a snowy morning > 31 oct 91 notebook
to hear the song of...
a strange bird in the woods
on an autumn morning
91/ watersnake 3
after I'm gone 4
will you come out of the river? 8
killing
morning-glories
in the
hot sun
siding-board coming loose
some old bricks
bitter cold garage
fat green
frog
clear stream's
bottom on
floating yellow
leaves
daffodils
the brick house where years ago (where ten 2 years ago)
2 babies burned to death
daffodils fresh daffodils
yearning in March
looking deeper into the forest
there's noone there
looking deeper into the woods
there's noone there
winter twilight
cold empty street of houses
time passing
Tim's Grocery
apple blossom -
and fresh red strawberries>
Bach in the dingy old room
hermit thrush at twilight
what poetry brings to existence
(do better)
only a white butterfly
fluttering
in the silent backyard
raining in the silence
a spring night
without thoughts
human footprints (bootprints) in the snow
which is no longer the woods
bootprints in the snow -
which is no longer
the woods
bootprints in the snow which is no longer the woods
Please click on the page
" Haiku Notebook 2" for the
rest of the notebook. . .