Vacation Haiku, Spring 2019

house after house

pale white roses--

city ordinance?

palm fronds rustle

in afternoon breezes

then, back to sleep

why so skittish, friend?

stay, drink up!--

hummingbird

-Yorba Linda, CA

**

she does sudoku

I write haiku--

cultural misappropriation?

angry fly

ruins my nap--

something i said?

a skilled trapeze artist

steals breakfast from a bird feeder--

fat squirrel

gardener's blower,

honking car horns,

invading Paradise

-Lafayette, CA 

Birds at The Airport

  birds 

     at the airport—

   no canceled flights

  birds 

  at the airport 

     not impressed

birds

  at the airport

  laughing at complexity

birds

   at the airport—

are you my mother?

-San Jose Airport

Ken Owen   Van Niddy Press
May 2019

Gendai Haiku

-in the style of and dedicated to Master Haiku Poet Kobayashi Issa

     i close my eyes

between poems by Issa

     and swallow them whole

*

morning tea--

sweet honey, bitter lemon

preview the day's possibilities

*

     warm bath, quiet reflection--

     the old man soaks 

      in peace

*

a troubled mind

melting 

     in the heat of worry

*

     lovers become enemies

now friends again--

     time brings wisdom for healing

*

the universe

interrupts my inertia--

cold coffee

*

the universe

delivers my exercise plan--

reheating cold coffee

*

tiny moth

shares my elevator--

what floor, friend?

*

tiny moth

shares my elevator--

apartment hunting

*

hillside cows

napping with indifference—

spring rain

*

      clouds admire their work,

the moon surveys the damage—

  spring rain

*
much in common,

morning sun warms old bones--

lazy house cat and me

*

careful, summer flies,

i have yet to clean

springtime webs!

*

midlife lament--
everything hurts,
reasons unknown

-for J.K. Jr. 

*

changing demographics
from old young man
to young old man

-inspired by JC of SSF

*

jumping to their death
to cool my hot bath--
beads of sweat

*

reading "Quotable Einstein"
at 3:00 a.m. --
who am i kidding?

*

walking the lake path
we speak of everything
and nothing

*

clouds parading west
seek storm instructions--
sunrise

*

short bird song
then quiet again--
"back to sleep, children"

*

short bird song
then quiet again--
bad dream?

-5:30 a.m.

Ken Owen

Van Niddy Press   May 2019