Friday, August 30, 2013

Haiku for the Family

SIX KIDS THEN

















"Snakes-and-Families and Happy Ladders.
And Easy Hobbi-Games for Little Engineers,
complete with instructions.
Oh, easy for Leonardo!"


from A Child's Christmas in Wales
by Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953
Welsh poet, writer, and reader


My Haiku for the Family

I'll try to write a
Haiku for the Family
Once upon a time

The mother, the dad
Three little kids, two big kids
Then a new baby

Sunflowers in Kansas
Then Idaho, home of spuds
Show us Missouri

Few Acres, our farm
We could walk safely to school
Ah, the American Dream

"A little sparrow
Could not fall unnoticed Lord
By thee." Our first prayer

On to St. Louis
For a subdivision life
We passed through the Arch

(not the golden ones)
Gateway to the west Across
the Wide Missouri

Our oldest brother
A hero in Viet Nam
Plus, he wrote haiku . . .

That made sense to me
About our favorite sandwich
Titled "The Salmon":

"Bravely leaping falls
For love. They'll never call you
Chicken of the Sea" . . .

In a white notebook
Left behind when he grew up
But I cherished it

Our sister could sing
Took us everywhere with her
She loved the Beatles

If I was sick, she
Held my head when I threw up
Always there for me

Us four little kids
Little sister and brother
Twin brother and me

Born a Gemini
With a real twin, my brother
What's the connection?

"Love ya like a sis"
She wrote that to make me laugh
Well, we are sisters

The Little Baby
Jesus of our family
We adored him so

Childhood Games: Happy
Families, Snakes and Ladders
Monopoly Life

Why me, Oh Goddess?
Naturally curly, frizzy
What big hair you have

Ready to grow up
We each pick a way to go
What would we find there?

Boyfriend in high school
Touching but not forever
Time to walk away

Boyfriend in college
Oops, that was a big mistake
How to extricate?

Finished school at last
B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
The Ideal Husband

Inordinately
Realistic, said the quiz, yet
A true romantic

Remember that dream
A gentleman and scholar
From far far away?

Santa once brought me
Boy Doll with a big blond head
Then my two real boys

Looked just like that doll
But animated, not ours
They have their own plans

Another passage
Mid-life-crisis-empty-nest
Now it all makes sense

What keeps you going?
Obligation, holidays
Curiosity
Every day a new surprise!

SIX KIDS NOW












MY - NESS
"My parents, my husband, my brother, my sister . . .
I delight in being here on earth
For one more moment, with them, here on earth,
To celebrate our tiny, tiny my-ness."

by Czeslaw Milosz, 1911 - 2004
Polish poet, translator, Nobel Prize Winner

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