Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
.
'Iran Chokes Off Internet On Eve of Student Rallies'
Associated Press - December 6, 2009

Sheikh Fazlollah Noori (Persian: شیخ فضلالله نوری, d. July 31, 1909, Tehran) was a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric in Iran during the late 19th and early 20th century who fought against the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and was executed for treason as a result. Today he is considered a martyr (shahid) in the fight against democracy by Islamic conservatives in Iran.
'Thousands Protest In Iran, Battling Police'
Associated Press December 7, 2009 (link)
Iran Student Protests Continue
Sydney Morning Herald December 10, 2009 (link)
'Iran Chokes Off Internet On Eve of Student Rallies'
Associated Press - December 6, 2009

Sheikh Fazlollah Noori (Persian: شیخ فضلالله نوری, d. July 31, 1909, Tehran) was a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric in Iran during the late 19th and early 20th century who fought against the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and was executed for treason as a result. Today he is considered a martyr (shahid) in the fight against democracy by Islamic conservatives in Iran.
'Thousands Protest In Iran, Battling Police'
Associated Press December 7, 2009 (link)
Iran Student Protests Continue
Sydney Morning Herald December 10, 2009 (link)
Friday, December 4, 2009
.

a pigeon's red eye
in shock and angry
to learn of dying
winter bluejay
childhood flown away
far too soon
comfortable now
a fresh dusting of snow
in my old black hat
through the window
that I refuse to close
bitter wind
...
a pigeon's red eye
in shock and angry
to learn of dying
winter bluejay
childhood flown away
far too soon
a fresh dusting of snow
in my old black hat
through the window
that I refuse to close
bitter wind
...
December 2009 Dottie Dot Awards
.

The mascot and editor-in-chief of the Haiku Bandit Society has determined the three best Moon Viewing Party poems for the month of December 2009. Forthwith, here are the recipients of this month's Dottie Dot awards!
purple stains
on a cold plate
storm moon
Anne
winter night
a remnant moon —
raising my cup
shadow and I
drink to each other
Chen-ou
What to say...
In this funny world
the Moon, like you and me
is but a mute spectator
Devika
(click here for previous month's Dottie awards)
.
The mascot and editor-in-chief of the Haiku Bandit Society has determined the three best Moon Viewing Party poems for the month of December 2009. Forthwith, here are the recipients of this month's Dottie Dot awards!
purple stains
on a cold plate
storm moon
Anne
winter night
a remnant moon —
raising my cup
shadow and I
drink to each other
Chen-ou
What to say...
In this funny world
the Moon, like you and me
is but a mute spectator
Devika
(click here for previous month's Dottie awards)
.
Labels:
december,
moon,
moon viewing party,
The Dottie Dots
Thursday, November 26, 2009
December 2009 moon viewing party
.

no paper trail
yet still it exists
first cold moon
*********************************************************************************
You are cordially invited to our tenth moon viewing party of 2009!
The full moon rises on Wednesday, December 2nd.
To submit a poem (all submissions remain the property of its author)
you may email me here: HAIKU BANDIT SOCIETY-or just post in comments. Please include your pen name so we might accredit your poem properly!
To see previous month's moon poems click here.
Happy moon gazing!
*********************************************************************************

cheshire moon
so bright amongst stars
the allure...
no benign warmth
in your frozen smile

twin plumes of incense
from across the ocean
daikakuji
enough to warm
this icy moon?

Re-
Vision ****
the swoop of tires at 3 am
no different than any other night
but for the crumpled moon
and lamplit pools of sodium yellow
busy with swirling snow
the motorists behind dirty windshields
hiding their real destination
their sluggish drunkeness
their true fear
a camera's prying eye
mounted high every quarter-mile
futility
the ultimate authority
one can only imagine
as some secret command
relayed from a lone dark hall
...but who's watching now?
is it
the steady drip of melt-off
from these damaged eaves?
or the obsidian blackness of worn asphalt
that absorbs all the punishment
this world can offer?
not likely
the ceaseless bleat of a car alarm
that nobody wants to turn off
or staccato 'whoop!' of a police car's siren
engine racing, lights flashing,
in stealthy pursuit down abandoned avenues
or maybe
where the night's street people
emerge from shadow,
a carriage of menace, voices petulant,
with their dope, knives, guns
and chips on their shoulders
seeing me
motionless
in the alleyway
hooded, quiet, smoke
rising from a cigarette
drooped carelessly from my lips
might they wonder
am I the final authority?
a look over the shoulder,
to amble down wet streets
defiant, finally, in manner
fear placed on hold
then I realize
no one's in charge here
nobody is...'cause I just know
and the snow turns back to rain
and cold light reflects off the dark road
and that moon-well, its just gone

busy with swirling snow
hiding their real destination
futility
that nobody wants to turn off
is it
not likely
seeing me
might they wonder
no one's in charge here?
and that moon-well, its just gone
slow-is-fast

night skiing-
moon behind a veil
of man made snow
John Merryfield

full moon
a white chrysanthemum
on her night stand
El Coyote

this haiku
written on my beer coaster
full moon
El Coyote

three-quarter moon
just the low tide
and I
T.Migratorius

Washing our face
in the same pond
November moon and me -
the night air hangs
thick with remorse
Devika

What to say...
In this funny world
the Moon, like you and me
is but a mute spectator
Devika

icy fruit
borne of the last ginkgo
a silver moon

no moon here last night: rain
i've missed the boat entirely
Grant

drunk and giddy,
cold chrysanthemum wine~
the moon gazers

bright lights, big city,
the crowds stopped at the crosswalk ~
looking at the moon!
btwink

winter night
a remnant moon —
raising my cup
shadow and I
drink to each other
Chen-ou Liu

hide and seek -
behind the chimney
the midnight moon
Anne

purple stains
on a cold plate
storm moon
Anne

clouded over
remembering
last month's full moon
Adelaide B. Shaw

a few paragraphs
of Henry Thoreau's journal;
most I've ever read!
so many winters have passed
that I've learned to watch the moon
...

no paper trail
yet still it exists
first cold moon
*********************************************************************************
You are cordially invited to our tenth moon viewing party of 2009!
The full moon rises on Wednesday, December 2nd.
To submit a poem (all submissions remain the property of its author)
you may email me here: HAIKU BANDIT SOCIETY-or just post in comments. Please include your pen name so we might accredit your poem properly!
To see previous month's moon poems click here.
Happy moon gazing!
*********************************************************************************
cheshire moon
so bright amongst stars
the allure...
no benign warmth
in your frozen smile
twin plumes of incense
from across the ocean
daikakuji
enough to warm
this icy moon?
Re-
Vision ****
the swoop of tires at 3 am
no different than any other night
but for the crumpled moon
and lamplit pools of sodium yellow
busy with swirling snow
the motorists behind dirty windshields
hiding their real destination
their sluggish drunkeness
their true fear
a camera's prying eye
mounted high every quarter-mile
futility
the ultimate authority
one can only imagine
as some secret command
relayed from a lone dark hall
...but who's watching now?
is it
the steady drip of melt-off
from these damaged eaves?
or the obsidian blackness of worn asphalt
that absorbs all the punishment
this world can offer?
not likely
the ceaseless bleat of a car alarm
that nobody wants to turn off
or staccato 'whoop!' of a police car's siren
engine racing, lights flashing,
in stealthy pursuit down abandoned avenues
or maybe
where the night's street people
emerge from shadow,
a carriage of menace, voices petulant,
with their dope, knives, guns
and chips on their shoulders
seeing me
motionless
in the alleyway
hooded, quiet, smoke
rising from a cigarette
drooped carelessly from my lips
might they wonder
am I the final authority?
a look over the shoulder,
to amble down wet streets
defiant, finally, in manner
fear placed on hold
then I realize
no one's in charge here
nobody is...'cause I just know
and the snow turns back to rain
and cold light reflects off the dark road
and that moon-well, its just gone

busy with swirling snow
hiding their real destination
futility
that nobody wants to turn off
is it
not likely
seeing me
might they wonder
no one's in charge here?
and that moon-well, its just gone
slow-is-fast
night skiing-
moon behind a veil
of man made snow
John Merryfield

full moon
a white chrysanthemum
on her night stand
El Coyote
this haiku
written on my beer coaster
full moon
El Coyote
three-quarter moon
just the low tide
and I
T.Migratorius
Washing our face
in the same pond
November moon and me -
the night air hangs
thick with remorse
Devika

What to say...
In this funny world
the Moon, like you and me
is but a mute spectator
Devika
icy fruit
borne of the last ginkgo
a silver moon
no moon here last night: rain
i've missed the boat entirely
Grant
drunk and giddy,
cold chrysanthemum wine~
the moon gazers

bright lights, big city,
the crowds stopped at the crosswalk ~
looking at the moon!
btwink

winter night
a remnant moon —
raising my cup
shadow and I
drink to each other
Chen-ou Liu
hide and seek -
behind the chimney
the midnight moon
Anne
purple stains
on a cold plate
storm moon
Anne
clouded over
remembering
last month's full moon
Adelaide B. Shaw
a few paragraphs
of Henry Thoreau's journal;
most I've ever read!
so many winters have passed
that I've learned to watch the moon
...
Labels:
december,
free verse,
gendai,
moon,
moon viewing party,
tanka,
winter
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
.
high up on a balcony
the neighbor's cock crows
looking at me below
as I talk to a dog
.
Labels:
gendai,
tanka,
Whitall Ave.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
holidaze
.

just enough
to tide us over
'til black friday
stars so bright...
some folks have no taste
in yard schlock
a drunk
at the top of the stairs
pass the turkey
our only son
brings over his dogs
grand babies
special for you
mango and papaya
from a steel can
shitbox yellow dodge
T-boned on payne avenue
really miss that ride
autumn avenue
a man out walking
sings of lost love
...
to tide us over
'til black friday
stars so bright...
some folks have no taste
in yard schlock
a drunk
at the top of the stairs
pass the turkey
our only son
brings over his dogs
grand babies
special for you
mango and papaya
from a steel can
shitbox yellow dodge
T-boned on payne avenue
really miss that ride
autumn avenue
a man out walking
sings of lost love
...
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Labels:
grass,
iron,
swede hollow,
winter
Labels:
chitose ame,
cranes,
senryu,
turtles
on withering grasses
its sudden warmth
so fragile - as witness,
the cold three day moon
.
Labels:
grass,
moon,
swede hollow,
tanka,
winter
Friday, November 20, 2009
of choice morning dew
days rendered endless
grasshopper, the dead poet,
a fool for heartless frost
...
Labels:
autumn,
bugs,
dew,
grasshopper,
keller lake,
tanka
Thursday, November 19, 2009
veteran's day redux
.

.
My best friend Steve is a Vietnam vet. Bless his heart, he never broached the subject until I'd known him for years.
He told some odd tales, hilarious, surreal...once he won a medal for stealing a jeep. A long story...
We have a last man's club of sorts: a bottle of Johnny Walker Black, a pair of clean socks and a pack of Winstons in a re-gift wine box-everything a guy needs.
Someday, one of us will piss on the other's grave.
Dragon's breath,
the forest alight with flame-
red, green, orange, black
a ghost beckons, laughing,
beautiful and serene
.
.
My best friend Steve is a Vietnam vet. Bless his heart, he never broached the subject until I'd known him for years.
He told some odd tales, hilarious, surreal...once he won a medal for stealing a jeep. A long story...
We have a last man's club of sorts: a bottle of Johnny Walker Black, a pair of clean socks and a pack of Winstons in a re-gift wine box-everything a guy needs.
Someday, one of us will piss on the other's grave.
Dragon's breath,
the forest alight with flame-
red, green, orange, black
a ghost beckons, laughing,
beautiful and serene
.
Labels:
death,
haibun,
Macalester College,
tanka,
veteran's day,
war
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Labels:
autumn,
birds,
crows,
lower east side,
trees
Labels:
autumn,
swede hollow,
words
Labels:
doors,
lower east side,
morning,
senryu,
street
Sunday, November 15, 2009
new moon
for want of a mysterious vision
sometimes i light a careless fire
to look longingly
beyond its heat and flame
never realizing
I could be consumed
become the offering
of a victimless pyre
to be engulfed
alone, forever searching...
is this which i really seek?
(revision #5)
...
Labels:
fire,
Hamm's Brewery,
moon
Labels:
dawn,
Hamm's Brewery,
winter
Friday, November 13, 2009
Labels:
autumn,
cold,
dogs,
rain,
Snelling Ave.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Labels:
autumn,
clouds,
gardens,
lower east side,
tanka
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
walkies
Labels:
autumn,
meditation,
rain
Monday, November 9, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Labels:
fruit,
gendai,
Hamm's Brewery,
oranges,
tomatoes
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Labels:
autumn,
coffee,
color,
morning,
swede hollow
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
November 2009 Dottie Dot Awards
The mascot and editor-in-chief of the Haiku Bandit Society has determined the three best Moon Viewing Party poems for the month of November 2009. Forthwith, here are the recipients of this month's Dottie Dot awards!
at the bottom of the jar
an old sixpence
- Sandra Simpson
lunar light
a quilter's stitch
across clouds
comrade harps
restless night
the full moon unstitches
nightmares
Barbara A Taylor
NSW Australia
.
.
.
.
Labels:
moon,
moon viewing party,
The Dottie Dots
Monday, November 2, 2009
Labels:
attic,
birds,
lotus. mind,
sparrows,
winter
Saturday, October 31, 2009
November Moon Viewing Party
.
.

Cassiopeia
traced boldly in dust
...cold moon
*********************************************************************************
You are cordially invited to our ninth moon viewing party of 2009!
The full moon rises on Monday, November 2nd.
To submit a poem (all submissions remain the property of the author)
you may email me here: HAIKU BANDIT SOCIETY-or just post in comments. Please include your pen name so we might accredit your poem properly!
To see previous month's moon poems click here.
Happy moon gazing!
*********************************************************************************

a mutt waits
at the liquor store entrance
halloween moon
John Merryfield

hamburgers
all the way to the moon
basho's bastard

Skipping rope
in the sky, found a light year
on the moon.
altadenahiker
autumn deepens
neither I or the moon
become master
bandit

13th night moon
police sirens echo
through the alley
bandit
flat on the wall
moonlight
creeps to the door
mountain-ash
moonlight
at the bottom of the jar
an old sixpence
- Sandra Simpson
lunar light
a quilter's stitch
across clouds
comrade harps
restless night
the full moon unstitches
nightmares
Barbara A Taylor
NSW Australia
...
.

Cassiopeia
traced boldly in dust
...cold moon
*********************************************************************************
You are cordially invited to our ninth moon viewing party of 2009!
The full moon rises on Monday, November 2nd.
To submit a poem (all submissions remain the property of the author)
you may email me here: HAIKU BANDIT SOCIETY-or just post in comments. Please include your pen name so we might accredit your poem properly!
To see previous month's moon poems click here.
Happy moon gazing!
*********************************************************************************
at the liquor store entrance
halloween moon
John Merryfield
hamburgers
all the way to the moon
basho's bastard

Skipping rope
in the sky, found a light year
on the moon.
altadenahiker
autumn deepens
neither I or the moon
become master
bandit
13th night moon
police sirens echo
through the alley
bandit
flat on the wall
moonlight
creeps to the door
mountain-ash
moonlight
at the bottom of the jar
an old sixpence
- Sandra Simpson
lunar light
a quilter's stitch
across clouds
comrade harps
restless night
the full moon unstitches
nightmares
Barbara A Taylor
NSW Australia
...
Labels:
arcade,
moon,
moon viewing party
Labels:
autumn,
gendai,
Marion St.,
moon,
rabbits
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
floats along the shore
ghost stories
river currents
deceptive in the dark
Dalloway / bandit
withered birch
hidden amidst green pine
mistaken for ghosts
possessed by the moon
the monster lives and breathes
in my heart
autumn in May -
not one of the pumpkins
is grinning ... / Lorin Ford
halloween
I go to the party
as myself... / Lorin Ford
Halloween nightdance -
the lucent smile of the cool moon
through his mask of see-through clouds ... / Devika
strange how sound travels
were once these wetlands
home to spirits?
Frankenstein with shades
a neighbour asks
if I'm dressing up... / comrade harps
halloween takeout
a ghost spine T-shirt boy
gets his mom to order... / Alan Summers
allhallowmas...
the goblins go back
into their books... / Alan Summers
...
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I'll be posting a trio of Halloween poems soon. Realizing there is safety in numbers, I invite anyone to join in-if they dare. Put a verse in comments here and I'll copy and paste it to the Halloween post.
Labels:
Halloween
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Labels:
autumn,
birds,
Ginko,
mississippi,
woodpecker
Labels:
35E,
autumn,
Ginko,
mississippi,
trees
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Labels:
autumn,
bodhisattva,
Dottie,
flowers
Nagaoka-kyo ‘Vestiges’ Ginko-Kukai
This 27th September past, the fledging Haiku Bandit Society took part in an international poetry exchange with the Hailstone Haiku Circle based in Japan, a group nearly a decade old who explore writing haiku and other Japanese poetic forms in English and Japanese. Their members, past and present, harken from all over the world.
In effect, taking the Bandits under their wing, the Hailstones kindly invited us to the exchange which featured the theme, 'Vestiges', with inspiration to be garnered on separate ginko walks which occurred nearly simultaneously on both sides of the globe. The Hailstones chose the site of Japan's short-lived eighth century capital Nagaoka-Kyo. The Bandits, with members from California to Tennessee and north from Minnesota to Ontario, relied on each one's own ingenuity for viable ginko sites.
Despite the distances separating each group's participants, all were united in the common cause of advancing the knowledge of haiku and its poetic beauty.
After a long day of ginko inspiration, each group collected, reviewed, and then culled their best poems (Bandits produced an amazing total of 80 candidates!) to send to the other for mutual enjoyment and critique, with those judged on that day to be the top three awarded with an exchange of prizes!
Here, then, follow each group's selections.
(Names highlighted link to that individual author's or group's blog site.)
AMERICAN SELECTION OF JAPANESE HAIKU

the emperor’s governance:
a dragonfly patrols it
in the breeze
Hisashi Miyazaki, Osaka
Nothing to mark
The cursed capital –
Loosestrife flowers
John Dougill, Kyoto
The Court is gone –
Still the ginkgo tree yields
Its golden nuts
Toshi Ida, Kameoka
JAPANESE SELECTION OF AMERICAN HAIKU
first kiss
the statue of a prime minister
holding his lapel
K.A. Martin, Ottawa
a thousand voices
and then…
autumn sparrows
William Sorlien, St. Paul
indian summer
jerusalem artichokes
mark the camp
Eric V., San Francisco
SELECTIONS OF MERIT
(in alphabetical order)
Mission Delores-
sweat of natives
in her walls
Robin Beshers / USA
at the foot of this hill
eleven thousand buried --
crickets singing
Kurt Brobeck / USA
Trial by fire-
a live oak by the burned bridge
needs a new name
Karin Bugge / USA
Food for a Korean prince
Laid out colour by colour...
In broken bowls
Tito / Japan
from duty, a one day refugee-
into an ancient maze
scented with early autumn
Mari Kawaguchi / Japan
deep in the mountains
scent of the ocean
in reclaimed wood
John Merryfield / USA
An old woman
walks with us,
suntanned and lost-
September labyrinth
Keiko Yurugi / Japan
Labels:
Ginko,
Hailstones,
icebox,
O'Canada,
vestiges
Friday, October 23, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Upstream a short distance from town is, or was, I should say, a working grain terminal and elevator, not exactly a harbor, perhaps most notable for its proximity to the railroad if anything. The building remains, although now it's an historic site.
Amidst the dirty concrete pilings beneath, we would fish for carp with bits of canned corn while rusty barges gradually subsided under loads of boxcar grain, smoke from pilfered cigarettes mingling with the odor of turgid water as we planned nefarious boyhood schemes.
The train tracks remain, although the riverfront has been subject to a decades long urban renewal, now surrounded by four-story apartments and condos. A far cry from the "old Levee" and degraded mansions-cum-ghetto rooming houses we feral house monkeys would terrorize.
If I close my eyes I can remember the sounds: six inch thick hemp rope slithering around massive steel pylons, a splash in murky ooze, the death throes of massacred carp, mouths agape and eyes blank, the clank and crash of breaking bottles disturbing the hiss of tons of pouring grain, jovial cursing of deeply tanned deckhands and the POP of rock salt fired from a .410 gauge shotgun by a drunken, angry train conductor-the crush of feet in flight, torn high-top sneakers scrambling across class 5 stone, our ragged panting...our laughter.
grain, steel and coal
russian hemp grown wild
along the tracks
Labels:
chestnut st.,
Ginko,
haibun,
hemp,
hootch,
KB,
mississippi,
summer,
trains
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