Category Archives: Random Poetry

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Murree Monsoon

This poem still needs work. I like some of the images in it that I did not expect. There are some things I would have liked to put in that did not get in (perhaps a sonnet cycle is in order). I like the mouse image, but it probably does not work with all the other wet or watery images (but I needed the rhyme).
Critique as you like. I can take it.
Murree Monsoon
That gentle chill that seeped into our house
From grey clouds that rolled, wet, down verdant hills
Is steeping still. A feeling like a mouse
Which ventures out only when all is still
And nibbles memory. The kettle’s on
And, soon, sweet tea, like that which warmed us there
Will chill and warm again, and bring days gone
Rolling gently back, to hang in the air,
Condense and drip, drip, drip down to a floor
Of wet dark earth and brown, bent and pungent
Needles, whose broken scent now pierces more
Than then. I wonder where those feelings went
Which come back now and roar through mental tracts
Like those glorious muddy cataracts..

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Dog Dying, A Hopeful Sonnet

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Looking at this picture with friends this weekend, reminded me just how much of a funny looking dog Bruno was. He was a lovely dog too, even if rather stubborn. I owe him a debt for love shown to me, for love shown to my father. “Love shown” makes it sound like a choice; in truth, dogs are likely more hardwired to love, even if a bit needily. Still, nonetheless, the love is real, which is easily demonstrated by when a dog’s eager love is spurned by us, and then dog goes and lays down in a corner, ears down, with sad, sad eyes.

I have written about Bruno before on this blog here. The poem below continues some of the themes expressed in the first one, in that it echoes the question of whether if the Fall of Mankind had not occurred animals would have been violent. This is not the poem of Bruno’s dying that I wanted to write, which involved more direct echoes of Aslan on the Stone Table, but perhaps that will come later. And it is far from perfect, emphasized by a rather abrupt end. Perhaps, I will work out the kinks of this one some time and also do an Aslan one, in the mean time…

Dog Dying, a Hopeful Sonnet
Dear Bruno, I do not know the answers
Of how it might have been if that First Fruit
Remained unplucked. Would life have surged? The curse
Unheard, would, then, your namesake teeth be moot?
Indeed, would we have come to this sad place
At all? Me muzzling your weakened growl,
Lifting you to this table. Its small space
Bearing the weight of years, of love. A howl,
Like the long, plaintive howls you barked all night
To the pristine, cold moon, barks from from my soul,
Tinged with regret, which only comes with might,
To choose to love, then not. A dog gives all.
But when the New Sun rises in the East.
I’ll be a true Master and you my Beast.

P.S. This sonnet was spurred along by reading the last chapter of The Last Battle by Lewis. It is evident that the man knew and loved dogs. And, oh the entire chapter just makes me ache with longing for heaven and the New Earth.

P.S.S. I cannot definitively say at all that our pooches and other pets will, indeed, be there, though Lewis had a theory that they might be raised by virtue of our shared love and life with them, but it sure would be nice. There are going to be beasties there, right? Might as well start the population with our beasts.

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After Much Waiting, The Haiku Contest Results

I do apologize for the waiting, but the first delay was an attempt to get more entries, the second to hear back from some truly extraordinary judges. I ended up receiving 6 entries and having an equal number of judges, whose judgment I truly value.
George is a writer who has recently begun a program of graduate studies and a thoughtful and lively new blog. Jacob is a writer and a poet and a sensitive thinker about issues of culture and faith. Tim, who is a member of my house church, generally has more creative projects going than this guy has plates spinning. He has a fun business (make sure you check out the gallery), which incorporates many of his talents, even it ain’t all fun and games to man a booth at several weddings and a high school prom of a weekend. Louise, is a former student worker at the library I used to work at, an uber Kurt Vonnegut fan (she is truly in mourning), and now the very comptent editor of Lewis and Clark Community College’s student newspaper, The Bridge. I have a distinct feeling that I am one day going to be saying about her “I knew her when…” Kirstin is a wonderful writer and the editor of catapult, to which I submit pieces upon occasion. And last, but certainly not least, Aaron is writer and poet, whom I am just getting to know and who runs an impressive poetry series at the Schlafly Tap Room, which I encourage you to attend if you are in the St. Louis area. Thank you to all of you judges for bringing such talent, judgment, and energy to this contest, and for taking the time to read haiku.
And now, without further preamble, the results….
Best Autumn Haiku
H.H.
Grey clouds, ominous
over golden, harvest fields-
a time to gather.
Runner Up: (tie) Heidi Vincent and Laura Wachsmuth
Best Winter Haiku: (tie)
Heidi Vincent
Frost buries the pane
chilly snap of a bough’s branch
Winter takes its kill
Laura Wachsmuth
Throw a little snow
up into moon-lit branches
crow wings flood the night
Runner Up: H.H.</strong
Grand Prize Winner: (tie)
Heidi Vincent and Laura WachsmuthRunner Up: H.H.
After six judges each assigning scores out of 10 to each haiku, Heidi Vincent and Laura received identical scores on their autumn and winter haiku respectively. They both scored a 94 out of a possible 120 points for the winning scores for their pairs of haiku. And to the commenter on a previous post who lamented the use of spreadsheets in judging, well I agree in principle that poetry should have no use for spreadsheets, yet it was the simplest way to quantify scores and try to fairly determine who received the most consistent recognition across a panel of diverse judges.
Congratulations to Heidies and to Laura. And many thanks to each of you entrants who participated. I truly enjoyed reading your pieces which follow and conducting the contest. Here’s hoping for even more entrants for Haiku Contest II to be held sometime in the dead of the coming winter for spring and summer haiku.
Ah, and the prizes. Well, in response to the tie, each winner will get a Toblerone or chocolate bar of her choice, and to the four extant prizes listed here and here, I am going to add this and this. Laura and Heidi V, you are just going to have to negotiate how to divide them.
And now on to the the point of all of this and to some lovely haiku…
Susan August
harvest peacekeeper -
scarecrow stands where the fields merge
to exchange their crops
waiting in the stream
dates from an old calendar -
ice is gathering
H.H.
Grey clouds, ominous
over golden, harvest fields-
a time to gather.
Discount-store fruit-cake
Mistletoe hid in pocket.
Christmas mis-givings.
Angela Heirendt
The bright heavens hold
Arms replete with painted leaves:
Rapturous embrace.
Hush of silent pond
Winter dusk sunlight descends
With sparkles of frost
Carol Lah
Eating toblerone
Leaves crunching under my feet
Cool breeze runs through hair
Rolling balls of snow
Sledding on rough icy hill
Toblerone on mind
Heidi Vincent
Winter shakes Autumn
And her leaves fall to her feet
She turns, blushing spring
Frost buries the pane
chilly snap of a bough’s branch
Winter takes its kill
Laura Wachsmuth
Whisper autumn’s here
A single leaf turns and falls
Red on withered green
Throw a little snow
up into moon-lit branches
crow wings flood the night

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Haiku Contest: The Judging Has Begun

Well, it has begun. The haiku have been submitted to the judges, and the results will be announced early next week.
Here are several of my own following the rules of the contest and reflective of my spending some of my youth in small towns in St. Louis’ Metro East. The challenge of haiku is to focus on one or several evocative images to create an entire picture. Every word can be important. For example, for the last word in the second line of poem two, I mulled over using “feel” or “take” or “drink” or “know” with each conveying a slightly different meaning. Pretty cool, huh. Well, enjoy, even if these are a tad dark.
how is such bounty
mixed with death, harvest queen, masks
candy in the streets

dark, frozen corn stalks
beneath a leaden sky, feel
the rabbit’s warm blood

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Contest, Part II…We’ve Got Judges

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Here is where we put to the test the question of whether haiku contests are like baseball fields. I have built one; let us see if they will, indeed, come. As of yet we have four people whom I’ve asked who have said “Yes” to being judges, one strong maybe, and yours truly. That makes a potential of 5-6 judges total, which is good because it makes the judging all the more unbiased, and hopefully well-rounded. Alas, as of yet, I have no entries!
In case you were curious, here is how the judging will work. Each judge other than myself will get haiku with only a number on them, not knowing who has written them. They will assign each individual haiku a score from one to ten, so the top possible score for a pair from one judge is 20. I will add up the scores from all the judges and the pair of haiku with the highest aggregate score will be the winner. Also, there will be honorable mentions for the best autumn haiku and winter haiku respectively. All haiku will be published here for our enjoyment without scores or ranking (aside from the winner of course).
Here we go! Here we go! Get those submissions in by noon on Wednesday, August 15th. The prizes await, plus a bonus prize recently discovered whilst cleaning my office has been added. It is the 30 card set of post cards of Japanese scenes which is pictured above.

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A Contest

This was going to be a Facebook contest only, but I had to bring the blog into the fun. I don’t want it to become the resentful older brother.
In response to the fantastic success of the elucidate the band name contest that just occured (on my Facebook page), I thought I would set up another one. Having just finished discussing haiku in a non-western lit class I was teaching, I thought that this was just the thing.
So, your assignment, should you choose to accept, is to write two haiku, one each for the upcoming autumn and winter seasons, preferably focused on these seasons in St. Louis, but that is not an absolute stipulation. Please send your haiku to neil.e.das@gmail.com by a week from today, August 15th. And the winner will be announced on Monday, August 20th. Judging will be done by me and at least one other esteemed judge in a impartial manner. All haiku will be posted here. And the winner, you ask, what does the winner get? Oh, just you wait.
First, though, even though this site indicates otherwise, the haiku for this contest must consist of three lines with 5-7-5 syllables respectively. Each haiku should have a kigo or seasonal word in it. And preferably there should be a cutting word, or pause after the second line, which sets up the ending. Here is the Wikipedia article on haiku.
Enough with the rules…what are the prizes? Well, the deserving winner will get to pick 3 out of the 4 items listed and pictured below.
*A rare complete copy of the second Ghetto Monk anthology consisting of essays, poems, reviews written by local authors and edited by Jeremy Huggins. This copy also includes the CD of original music that came with the publication. High quality all around.
*A cool, Asian looking red box (actally made in Poland) suitable for, well, storing loose change, though only a little, or jewelry or what not. And the cicada shells currently inside it can totally be optional.
*Pristine paperbacks of the first nine books in the A Series of Unfortunate Events book series by Lemony Snicket.
*A regular sized Toblerone.
OK, remember you only get your choice of 3 out of 4 prizes, so dream wisely, get writing, and tell your friends. And, yes, the prizes will be shipped (if necessary) anwhere in these united states.
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