Monday, June 06, 2016
Epic Haiku of Texas!
Wow! Good stuff, people... especially these extended works:
From Bob:
Texas: Blue cities
Surrounded by vast red swathes
A state in conflict.
Is Texas South? West?
Progressive? Or regressive?
Is it Brown? White? Black?
Is bigger better?
Is celebrating your past
Really just racism?
A state of contrast
It doesn't know what it is
And that's dangerous
The Lone Star State needs
Less pride and more compassion
Less brag, more caring
And it starts with me.
This Texan bleeds for his state
What it still can be.
And this from Anonymous:
At John Armstrong School
Highland Park, Texas, I learned
State flower, song, bird
In third and fourth grade.
The Battles of Alamo
and San Jacinto
Texas history,
not United States or World.
Fire to my small heart
Not the Mockingbird
Or the Bluebonnets or song
But this one teacher
Who saw in us each
Gifts we could not see ourselves
Who we longed to be.
And (as usual) Renee evoked something very real:
Uncle 'Vester came
From Arvin and made "Come back
Dip" from Mayo,ketchup
And Tabasco and
Served it with saltines.Everything
In Texas he said was
The biggest in the world,
Which apparently didn't
Apply to him.His
Daughter rode the flat-
Bed truck like a surfboard."Looka
Here,Daddy," she said,
"Ah'm surfin' " We hoped
For treacherous curves...and she
Had 'em. It proved to
Be a weird summer.
Trying to explain farming
To city slickers.
From Bob:
Texas: Blue cities
Surrounded by vast red swathes
A state in conflict.
Is Texas South? West?
Progressive? Or regressive?
Is it Brown? White? Black?
Is bigger better?
Is celebrating your past
Really just racism?
A state of contrast
It doesn't know what it is
And that's dangerous
The Lone Star State needs
Less pride and more compassion
Less brag, more caring
And it starts with me.
This Texan bleeds for his state
What it still can be.
And this from Anonymous:
At John Armstrong School
Highland Park, Texas, I learned
State flower, song, bird
In third and fourth grade.
The Battles of Alamo
and San Jacinto
Texas history,
not United States or World.
Fire to my small heart
Not the Mockingbird
Or the Bluebonnets or song
But this one teacher
Who saw in us each
Gifts we could not see ourselves
Who we longed to be.
And (as usual) Renee evoked something very real:
Uncle 'Vester came
From Arvin and made "Come back
Dip" from Mayo,ketchup
And Tabasco and
Served it with saltines.Everything
In Texas he said was
The biggest in the world,
Which apparently didn't
Apply to him.His
Daughter rode the flat-
Bed truck like a surfboard."Looka
Here,Daddy," she said,
"Ah'm surfin' " We hoped
For treacherous curves...and she
Had 'em. It proved to
Be a weird summer.
Trying to explain farming
To city slickers.
