A special one- time only edition of Tip of The Knife devoted
to haiku (+/-).
“I went over to an old Chinese cook in the doorway of the kitchen
and asked him “Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?”
“I don’t care,” said the old cook.
Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums
_____________________________________________________________________________
Nico Vassilakis
This position
Is never of my choosing
I am constantly responding
To what comes my way
A position
Will diminish after
Time
One position
Depends on
The many before it
To survive
The position
Was so radical as to
Unravel the entire fabric
Of what came before
His position
Emanated from a center
No one could
Conceive of
That position
Is disreputable
And is unlikely
To find traction
These positions
Seem to constitute
An organized front
Her position
Distracted
The others
Their positions
Were designed
To keep them
In power
Andy DiMichele
I:
pearl
this
river is flow
flow
is flowing, flowering
lotus
unfolding
II.
fiat
lux, abram
bereshit,
abrahaM(oSh-
ox,
goad, twenty-three
III.
vierge
noire “hoo, hoo”
parzival
4:33
montserrat
blank book
IV.
qibla
qabala
mary
poppins zeitgeist spoon
yetzirah
yahrzeit
V.
pentagram.
cube. bull.
ladder.
i dream of sleeping.
gematri- giraffe
VI.
fivefivefiveseven
sevensevensevenfive
fivesevenfiveodd
VII.
null
pi qlipothel
ain
sophia-shekinah
888 1 1
∞
zimzumzimzumzim
zumzimzumzimzumzimtsum
tsimzumzaumzamzam
Karl Kempton
1 hand = !
1 moon sutra
3 moon sutra
4 moon sutra
5 moon sutra
haiku into mathemaku
Dale Jensen
i
Would cATCH rat sweat
in
THE glory of a jar
paradiSE ENough
geese
twisting backwards
the
sun is on upside down
it
must be midnight
little
cricket calls
its
chiRps of EVOLUTION
against
car traffic
siren
two streets down
dog
next door howling along
like
a soul on fire
walking
through the rain
people
carry a doghouse
that’s
missing a roof
fat woman in line
seething automatic gun
tattooed on her arm
Judy Wells
Clothes
of a writer—
Ink marks on her blue nightgown
right on her left breast.
Sleeping
with glasses
on nose—forgotten? Or for
clearer dream vision.
Dream
Bright
computer screen
says “Genealogy of Witches”
Am I on the list?
Hot
October days
My room—wild animal smell—
Who’s in there but me?
“Captain of My
Soul”
carved on wooden bench. I rest
my back on “My Soul.”
Rain drop on my lip—
What miracle of sky brings
on this small deluge?
I
heard myself say
“Five”
as I turned over in
my
sleep. Damn haiku!
Crag Hill
Mark Young
Some
displaced geographies
Puberty kicks in, jogs
a mile & a half. That's a
Transformer reference.
To fill the Cathedral
with similes & metaphors—
fly fishing for salmon.
The organizing principle
is competition, not the
philosophy of mathematics.
Diagnostic equipment has
a feeling of remoteness
but without any expense.
A green man on a bi-
cycle, with a huge
body & tiny bungalow.
Unperturbed by the
lack of an erection, cows
crashed his pity party.
Dr. John M. Bennett
blood dog
bit off lunch
glass or glands
the time returns
boils off
hamster hamster
reflejo
behind the door a
drip .just one .an
.ant .searches . . .
.floor . . . .
economics
painted ,clustered
born to buy
baseless flame
yr empty throat
full ,an dry
would you
andamio
crumpled page
sun smeared
heard a step
uh clown arrives
long foam
key shade or's
dim yr
bulb inside the
fridge :la
peur la peur
is
frozen ddust
yr tires sleep
outside a cage
yr wrinkled fog
Matthew Stolte
Bottomless, spread-eagled on a mat
madhouse patient jams my
Bukowski book
into her vagina.
Not purple, Spring flowers -
a big can
on brown, roadside leaves.
The big metal mixing bowl
we puked in, also
was used for popcorn & bread.
2 tiny flies treading wine -
tread now in a spoon -
finally, Enjoy the sink ride!
The gypsy cut her wrists
in the broken window
crescent;
white blanket in the a.m. garbage orange.
Neighbors shouting at their dogs
to be quiet
are much louder than the dogs.
Leanne Bridgewater
This is “Do-ku”, a made up term by myself, which could be classed as
instructional haiku, involving interpretative dance and physical movement:
“being/acting' out the three lines, e.g. Unconsciousness could involve
lying on the floor and Scarecrow could be produced by holding one's arms
out, feeling lonely but in control (ready to scare off birds). Once you have
figured out a movement for each line, repeat these movements over and over
until the do-ku (haiku) becomes a dance routine.
Scarecrow
turning into
astronaut
A reel of cotton
being pulled
outwards
until no cotton
is left on the reel
A robot
taking a seat
on the sofa
Your mother
crying
into a bottle of alcohol
A piece of clothing
scrunched up
on the floor
Do-ku is great to play with friends and family. Try creating your own dance routine of do-ku, and perhaps make a video of it for YouTube. Please share any results with me. Catch me on leannebridgewater@hotmail.co.uk
Hold this (if printed) far away and read. If reading from the computer or a device,
move away from the screen. This is an eye test. Good luck.
Eyetest-ku
A E I O U
N S T R U Y M
Y X B U W
S E N S E
M N I L O U E
W Y U N Z M Y H O U
M Y H O U
S E I S A M L
P B U I N
David Baratier
Red headed Hellboy
a stranger hostess chirping
trogon warrior.
Swamp Thing took my boat
the orange one that hardly floats,
about in it, mucking.
House of Mystery
secret torture chambers are
waiting for ai yeeee
The Phantom Stranger
unburdens visiting house
refrigerator.
Gotham by gaslight
prostitutes beware Batman
signal glows nightly
Tomb of Dracula
quicker treatments for horses
the stakes of Coffin
Joel Chace
figures, at the end
pain starting again
--
step at a time in this fog --
step at a time in this fog --
angle of riposte
morning of dark soil
--
strong wind above the highway --
fill in those ovals
intelligent blur --
they eat our shoes for supper --
all quotients will fail
dutiful romance --
just waiting for the rally
--
so, decide to swerve
three flies on our pane
--
now there’s always an odd light --
figures, at the end
Stephen Perkins
Bill DiMichele
sarcophagus lid
sinks low above the
treetops
wash it down with beer
when there is silence
when the stars have come
around
when peaches ripen
sitting at pier 9
white city, misty
morning
seagulls dive for crabs
it’s in her belly
the universal drama
come to me, my tomb
dusty clocks ticking
a dark house facing the
sea
splinter of a moon
ocean and mountains
cali morning, star
jasmine
mexican breakfast
blackberry vapors
bright feathers of a
dolphin
champagne white diamond
hummingbirds like harps
nearly weightless,
wrapped in light
they’re drunk all the time
ultraviolet snake
peyote everlasting
forgive my silence
colored sails flutter
she looks down to the
harbor
blinking in her robes
antiparticles
the word i saw in heaven
annihilation
tell all of my bones
that i am ready to die
perhaps to return