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Ty Hadman's Haiku
After
winter rains
where tramps gathered last summer
watermelon sprouts
Sacramento,
CA
The
faint sound of jazz
drifts down to the waterfront
this foggy spring night
Seattle,
WA
Highway
Twenty West:
windblown tumbleweeds whirling
past the slow traffic
Southeastern
Arizona
Winter
night stillness:
the armed security guard
checks his horoscope
Sacramento,
CA
The
night is still young:
stepping out of the tavern
into the salt breeze
Redondo
Beach, CA
The
lit pumpkin's smile:
a pretty princess appears
on the moonlit path
Eugene,
OR
Building
our dream home;
the bubble in the level
slides to the middle
Bellfountain,
OR
Lonely
winter night:
the phone booth on the corner
rings and rings and rings
Oakland,
CA
Sudden
spring shower!
a man ducks in a bookstore
and looks at the nudes
Berkeley,
CA
Starry
summer night:
screams from the roller-coaster
o'er the crashing surf
Santa Monica,
CA
Greyhound
at midnight:
a man leafs through his black book
cover to cover
Southern
California
Growing
in the heart
of the hot arid desert -
one red wildflower
Sonoran
Desert, southern Arizona
This
rural jail cell -
farther and farther away
the cries of wild geese
Pendleton,
OR
Toyota
car lot:
fallen pink petals sticking
to the wet windshields
East
Oakland, CA
Partially
shrouded
in the steam from the hot springs
a fawn in the ferns
Cougar
Hot Springs, OR
Long
bumpy bus ride;
how perfectly she's applied
her morning make-up
Tucson,
AZ
A
fork in the trail:
two pairs of footprints diverge
after many miles
Three Sisters
Wilderness, OR
The
moon slips through clouds
and the frog on the log leaps
back into darkness
near Bellingham,
WA
Quiet
countryside . . .
my hitchhiking thumb is stained
with wild blackberries
Vida, OR
Million
dollar home:
below the property line
I too, view the sea
Carmel,
CA
WINTER
HITCHHIKING
in
my patched clothes
homeless and unemployed
ready for winter!
winter
approaching;
hoboes huddled together
around the campfire
winter
wandering;
cup after cup of hot coffee
to go
homeless
hitchhiking
here & there
homeless
and hungry
the cold, cold rain
all night long
behind
bare bushes:
my frozen fingers unable
to unzip my fly
waking
up
with winter
inside me
first
snow:
my pockets
are empty
winter
poverty;
I made a new friend
at the blood bank
selling
our blood
for a few dollars per pint
winter deepens
with
our blood money
we share a fifth
of fine red wine
lost
in a labyrinth of streets
late at night
a stray dog following me...
winter
over but still cold
standing and waiting all alone
on a lonesome highway
at
the crack of dawn
over and under the bridge
swift swallows swoop
the
old backpack
patched and ready to go
spring traveling
-----------------------------
a
long journey ends;
I hang my hammock
near the moonlit sea
carrying
home
a bag of groceries
and a little snow
Memorial
Day service -
a young man prays hard
handless
pointing
to the sun
every morning and evening
the scarecrow
scarecrow
still
measuring
the vast summer sky
swift
windblown clouds -
hitchhiking through my birthplace
without a penny
the
faint sound of jazz
drifts down to the waterfront
this foggy spring night
the
poor part of town:
a drunk Santa wandering
through the empty streets
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ty Hadman started studying Japanese culture and religion in 1964. He was interested in rock gardens, the tea ceremony, Japanese literature, woodblock prints, kite-flying, Zen, and just about anything Japanese. That same year he read some of the Peter Pauper Press Japanese haiku translations, but didn't become interested in haiku until 1966 when he met a barber at an informal social gathering of artists in the Silverlake District in Los Angeles. This barber knew about 50 haiku by heart and his commentaries sparked lively discussions.
Ty was sent to Vietnam in 1968. He kept a personal diary which later inspired his first haiku. After the war he was admitted into a Hindu monastery in Canada, where he was a monk for two years. He then became a wanderer, hitchhiking in all four cardinal directions throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, hopping freight trains, begging door-to-door, staying with friends or as a guest on communes, drifting from state to state, odd job to odd job, working as a migrant worker on farms and ranches, sometimes ending up in the city accepting day labor or odd jobs or factory work and then moving on again.
Ty finally settled down for four years in the San Francisco Bay area. Starting in 1987, he relocated to Mexico to do research on medicinal plants and the history of Hispanic haiku, and was employed as an English teacher. Ty Hadman relocated to Peru in 1993 where he presently lives with his wife and daughter in the tiny fishing village of Puerto Eten.
Ty's haiku evoke his wanderings, particularly along the west coast, and therefore reflect a variety of American scenes.
http://members.aol.com/frenjp/haiku/typage.htm
http://www.ahapoetry.com/PPthbio.htm