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Diane di Prima's
Haiku
(di Prima, Diane, 1934-2020)
4
TAKES, SAME HAIKU
....... for Tigger
Beauparlant
First
storm of autumn
and the path is strewn
with fallen fuchsia blossoms
Hummingbird
seeking
the fallen fuchsia blossoms:
first autumn storm
After
this first storm
the hummingbirds mourn
fallen fuchsias on wet ground
Fuchsias
broken on
wet ground; hummingbirds hungry
Autumn storms begin
"4 Takes, Same Haiku" in: Pieces of a Song: Selected Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1990. p.127
---------------------------------
Three "Dharma Poems"
1
his
vision or not?
gone is the authority
w/ which he opened his fan.
2
raindrops
melt in the pond
& it's hard to say
just what "lineage" is
3
my
faith—
what
is it but the ancient dreams
of wild ones in the mountains?
---------------------------------
THE
WIDOW'S SMILE
a ten haiku sequence
1
the
widow's smile
as she arranges winter roses
in a glass
2
marks
of the
jackrabbit's teeth on every
pad of the prickly pear
3
laughter
of the thin child
on her way
to cancer surgery
4
old
man's mind
flares brightly as he
writes the last page of his journal
5
even
off-season
the cholla
flowers
6
died
in yr sleep
laid out in yr own bed:
how did the dream change?
7
cold
winter morning
the baby quail search for seeds
under the sagebrush
8
dawn
over mountains
in the dead tree
the ladder-back woodpecker is ready
9
would
like to hold you
in silence, say yes
grief is as you describe it
10
in
the dry wash
tracks of coyote
white bones of something small
Haiku. Love Press, Topanga, CA, 1966.
---------------------------------
FROM
HARBIN HOT SPRINGS
(In a season of drought)
1
in
the gray light
jays scream
at departing guests
2
spring
mist, scant green
on these ancient hills
the ground still parched
3
no
February mushrooms
at the foot of the bay tree
the deer chews old roots
---------------------------------
SHORT POEMS ON THE AFGHAN WAR
1
small
bones of
mountain chilren
in the snow
2
bags
of rice burst open
burlap flaps in the wind
even the label "USA"
is fading
3
WE AIR-DROP TRANSISTOR RADIOS
can
you eat them?
will they
keep you warm?
---------------------------------
AFTER GENJI
In
the dream we didn't even seek to touch.
How susceptible the heart in the morning
rain!
---------------------------------
ANCIENT HISTORY
the
women are lying down
in front of the bulldozers
sent to destroy the last
of the olive groves
---------------------------------
last
night it rained
here and there pumpkins
gleam in white fog
---------------------------------
do
they tremble from
wind, from noise, or pleasure:
green plants at an open
window
---------------------------------
black
& white cat
stalks a secret
in the tall spring grass
The
pine shadow falls on the tent wall
& I see the shrine
as if for the
first time
from Seminary Poems, Rocky Mountain Dharma Center
---------------------------------
About Haiku
At first it was a crossroads, the non-existent spot where time and space crossed each other at right angles. Later, both time and space (in the sense of dimensionality) disappeared and there was timelessness (not even the "event out of time" as H.D. has it). Something infinitesmal and particular. Most recently it's been all about spaciousness, vastness in the fewest possible strokes. Images. Letting the breath open the sky.
the
inner tide—
what
moon does it follow?
I wait for a poem
too
much wind
the
poppies
refuse to open
for
days that old dream
like a window on an unimagined landscape
& the sun
about to rise
--------------------------------
DEATH POEMS IN APRIL
1
even
the Buddha lay down
to breathe his last
why am I struggling?
2
easy
to disappear
into this fog
3
put
this water and ash
on the roots
of some old tree
---------------------------------
DREAM
POEM ON THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS
(after
reading Kroeber)
song
cycles
lost in the woods:
the last throat pierced
---------------------------------
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2002
bald
eagle
making a come-back
so am I
---------------------------------
TASSAJARA, 1969
Even
Buddha is lost in this land
the immensity
takes us all with it, pulverizes,
& takes us in
Bodhidharma
came from the west.
Coyote met him.
---------------------------------
*
friend
tonight in the rain
I am afraid to hear
your song
---------------------------------
*
I
say my new name
over and over
coming home from the temple
---------------------------------
TARA
1
on
the airplane she said
"I feel streched"
where? I asked & she
laid her hand
on her crown chakra
---------------------------------