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!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHZrLL2AAP4

Enjoy!