Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Haibun and Haiku by John McDonald






Recently the Scottish poet John McDonald sent me a haibun and some haiku that I'd like to share with you on this first day of fall.

MONK
(Thelonious that is...)


Butterflies stop by,
(the man with the funny hats is playing)
dancing, they sashay, shimmy, and soft shoe shuffle.

He dances a little himself: puppet jerking to the tenor's syncopation;

then back to dissecting the blues, searching, trawling the deeper dissonant strain  -

plotting the saddest sadness.

Today, he is gone, the man with the funny hats;


...the butterflies dance on.



holy roller
this is your story
this is your song





my face refleckted  -
smiling in a photograph
among jazz legends


spring fair  -
bagpipes silent
rain paradiddles





'Jazz on a Summer's day'  -
a basket full of flowers
full of bees


music festival  -
jazz in the old churchyard
children dance on graves




a background
of blues  -
clouds improvise

jazz clarinet  -
a black butterfly
dances round the radio




vagaries 
of the stream  -
jazz to hymnal

it starts to snow
the blind musician
looks upwards




I'd like to post some music from It's Monk's Time.  The first is "Lulu's Back in Town":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiM_RJevQbQ 

Next is "Memories of You,"  which goes nicely with John's last haiku:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYHPvU7f0Q8

What could a song titled "Stuffy Turkey" sound like?  Let's listen!

Enjoy!  

3 comments:

  1. I very much enjoyed this post by John. The haiku, photos, little prose is so well put together. Thank you so much.

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  2. aabsolutely beautiful john......the talent is remarkable
    let u s continue to write while we can. it is remarkable
    congratulatios to all and thank you to marianne

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