Wooden Shoes – haiku by Dennis Lange

Wooden Shoes

I’m asking:
Was it difficult
To tiptoe?

—–

Do they shine?
Or did one have to
Just sand them?

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photo by Bill Davenport at
http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mg1YbdS/Wooden+Shoes

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* The haiku I write are lines of 3-5-3 syllables instead of 5-7-5.

See Haiku article here for explanation, if needed: https://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/haiku/

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2014.

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A Year’s Spinning by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

…….A Year’s Spinning

He listened at the porch that day
…To hear the wheels go on, and on;
And then it stopped, ran back away,
…While through the door he brought the sun:
…But now my spinning is all done.

He sat beside me, with an oath
…That love ne’er ended, once begun;
I smiled – believing for us both,
…What was the truth for only one:
…And now my spinning is all done.

My mother cursed me that I heard
…A young man’s wooing as I spun:
Thanks, cruel mother, for that word –
…For I have, since, a harder known!
…And now my spinning is all done.

I thought – O God! – my first-born’s cry
…Both voices to mine ear would drown:
I listened in mine agony –
…It was the silence made me groan!
…And now my spinning is all done.

Bury me ‘twixt my mother’s grave,
…(Who cursed me on her death-bed lone)
And my dead baby’s (God it save!)
…Who, not to bless me, would not moan.
…And now my spinning I all done.

A stone upon my heart and head,
…But no name written on the stone!
Sweet neighbors, whisper low instead,
…“This sinner was a loving one –
…And now her spinning is all done.”

And let the door ajar remain,
…In case he should pass by anon;
And leave the wheel out very plain, –
…That HE, when passing in the sun,
…May see the spinning is all done.

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Sonnet 35 – Good People by Dennis Lange

…..Sonnet 35 – Good People

On that same day that San Antonio
Won finals first game in their fifth ring quest,
The Denver Nuggets coach was told to go,
E’en though he led them to a franchise best.

Dwight Howard bid the Lakers bye in days,
And Kobe, left behind, refused a cut
That would have helped the Lakers mend their ways.
He’d take more millions, stay in lower rut.

But Spurs go on, as regular as clocks,
Precisely tuned so ev’ry part supports
Without the drama, ego of most jocks –
The best franchise in any of the sports.

Good people always bring about good things;
Sometimes, they’re even blessed with champion’s rings.

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The poem is written about a day during the NBA playoffs in 2013. The Spurs went on to lose the championship when they had it in their grasp in game 6 with a 5 point lead over the Miami Heat with 28 seconds to go. The Denver Nuggets record for the 2012-2013 season was 57-25 and for the 2013-2014 fell to a mark of 36-46. To be fair, the situation in the sonnet was not the greatest factor in this year’s fall. They were over- whelmed by injuries to most of their starters. As a team, they missed a total of293 games due to injury or illness.

The success of the San Antonio Spurs:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/prishe/2013/03/16/san-antonio-spurs-north-americas-best-run-professional-sports-franchise/

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2012/05/san_antonio_spurs_2012_the_nba_s_most_successful_franchise_reveals_that_america_is_a_nation_of_hypocrites_.html

4 championships since 1997
5 conference titles
11 division titles
15 straight years with 50 wins or more
won 70% of their games during that span
33 playoff appearances in 37 years in the NBA
tied for the best season record in 2013
best season record in 2014 (62-20)

 

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I’m Tired Of Eating Them! – haiku by Dennis Lange

I’m Tired Of Eating Them!

Fish and chips!
Instead, what I want –
Chips and fish.

—-

For dieter:
Make both singular –
Fish and chip.

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photo by Lars Sundstrom at
http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mifKHCu/Fish+and+chips

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* The haiku I write are lines of 3-5-3 syllables instead of 5-7-5.

See Haiku article here for explanation, if needed: https://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/haiku/

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2014.

 

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A Ballad Of Trees And The Master by Sidney Lanier

A Ballad Of Trees And The Master

Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, forspent.
Into the woods my Master came,
Forspent with love and shame.
But the olives they were not blind to Him,
The little gray leaves were kind to Him:
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him
When into the woods He came.

Out of the woods my Master went,
And he was well content.
Out of the woods my Master came,
Content with death and shame.
When Death and Shame would woo Him last,
From under the trees they drew Him last:
‘Twas on a tree they slew Him – last
When out of the woods He came.

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*forspent – exhausted

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Excellence In Dining by Dennis Lange

……….Excellence In Dining

As dusk was drifting to the dark of night,
The hidden stars were shining out of sight,
Bid by the parent clouds to stay away,
And all those distant tots had to obey.

Like sun, I, too, was hastening to my place.
But fuel for him was always on his face
While mine, behalf of body, begged be fed
Ere I, too, reached my home and went to bed.

Since I was hurried like a harried hare,
For excellence in dining, I’d no care.
I gave up comfort in a quest for haste;
A fast food drive-thru line is what I faced.

And in the growing dark, a mist now fell
That on my windshield I saw very well
For, from the car ahead of me there came
Its brake lights burning like a reddish flame.

And each pin-point of mist upon my glass
Snatched up the red and wouldn’t let it pass
And shined as bright red mints upon my sky,
As stars the parent clouds would not let by.

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2014.

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When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charactry,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the fairy power
Of unreflecting love; – then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

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Two Mouse Haiku by Dennis Lange

Mouse Conversation

No, he’s not.
….He certainly looks
….Real to me.

——

Check him out?
He’s big as a cow!
You do it!

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photo by Nathalie Dulex at http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/msDcKjI/Tea+pots

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* The haiku I write are lines of 3-5-3 syllables instead of 5-7-5.

See Haiku article here for explanation, if needed: https://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/haiku/

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2014.

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Passer Mortuus Est by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Passer Mortuus Est

Death devours all lovely things,
Lesbia with her sparrow
Shares the darkness, – presently
Every bed is narrow.

Unremembered as old rain
Dries the sheer libation,
And the little petulant hand
Is an annotation.

After all, my erstwhile dear,
My no longer cherished,
Need we say it was not love,
Now that love has perished?

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The title is Latin, meaning, “The sparrow is dead.”

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Sonnet 27 – The Empty Tomb Stories by Dennis Lange

Sonnet 27 – The Empty Tomb Stories

On that first day, two tales sprang from the grave.
Like couriers, one headed north, one south.
We choose which is the knight, which is the knave,
Which tells the truth, which comes from lying mouth.

The first has always been its own worst foe:
We slept; disciples stole the corpse away.
But if they were asleep, how did they know?
And if awake, they would have won the fray.

The second’s known, for it is strong, survives.
The ones who scattered as their teacher died
Said He arose, and we can see changed lives.
E’en though it cost them all, they testified.

Two stories of the empty tomb were told:
One made men laugh; the other made men bold.

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Stanza 2 – An angel appeared and rolled away the stone.
The Roman guards shook in fear and became like dead
men.  When they recovered, they went to the Jewish
leaders for protection (to avoid being killed by Pilate).
They were given money and told to say that the
disciples came and stole the body of Jesus while they
were sleeping (Matt.28:2-4; 11-15).

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2014.

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