Haiku - Seasonal Word Challenge
Challenge Word: "Election Day"
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Election Day and
Judgement Day fall on Tuesdays some plan to stay home pre-Election Day the elected and elect are the same some think hell or high water he votes on Election Day-- the weather is clear on Election Day the spider hangs by a thread for her it’s normal knuckling cheap doors on Election Day evening to wake the last dogs Election Day knock-- I hear them behind the door trying to shush the dog |
Challenge Word: "Halloween"
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meeting you neighbors
taking candy from strangers just on Halloween Halloween candy the bowl by the door still full last ghosts gone to rest a little princess the sole one I recognize-- Halloween costumes the cat bumps her leg through her Halloween costume not fooled in the least cold air and flashlights their high voices talking fast through Halloween masks dressed like my parents as their Halloween costumes-- all over again dressed to have been killed what makes the old couple smile kids think it’s funny the black cat hisses the spruce grew a witch’s broom Halloween for real |
Challenge Word: "Jack-O-Lantern"
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sizing-up pumpkins
for inner jack-o-lantern by squint of his eye that big grin of his turns out his greatest weakness old Jack-o-Lantern a dog’s a bother looking around for a friend Jack-o-Lantern winks |
Challenge Word: "sweater"
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snugged tight down a sleeve
the kitten in my sweater stuck forward and back a shiver to think fishermen wore such sweaters in case they were lost a sailor’s wife knits the best sweater to drown in her special pattern despite climate change pull on another sweater-- because of in fact a marvel to see the baby’s tiny sweater its powdery smell she’s trying to choose for St. Mary’s high-school dance how tight a sweater a model who looks like an un-dressed mannequin without the sweater no safe place to stay sweaters on sweaters she grows stout in winter cold born blind in my sweats she’s in my old sweater now all eyes and rib bones |
Challenge Word: "falling leaves"
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the first falling leaves
monarchs drift up from asters geese rise in their Vs leaves come in flurries Osage oranges thump down news—new lows daily scattering dry leaves to cover the place where it… even in still air the bare earth depends on this annual leaf-drop-- sorting donations leaves and acorns fall together to feed the earth and keep the squirrel catch one falling leaf hundreds flipping and turning it should be simple passing by a church I did belong to one time veiled by falling leaves hospital window waiting for the tree’s last leaf to let go and fall |
Challenge Word: "moon"
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the moon gets used up
crescent by tearful crescent slices of onion the dark of the moon is enough for the huskies to start up a howl the moon pulls away a few centimeters more not turning its back Another finger A baby with chubby hands Pointing at the moon |
Challenge Word: "cricket"
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told with a straight face
that the cricket stridulates the little boy laughs sleigh bells in the grass buried by flurries of leaves joyous cricket time the crack of willow that leaves the stumps undisturbed cricket in the sun legs lost in field-grass a blue heron in the rain fishing for crickets listening so hard the cricket sounds like silence then like the answer toads open their eyes while the birds are all sleeping crickets fill the night how could he be here the cricket in the bathroom he looks surprised too dying crickets sing a song that lives forever everyone hears them pondering the chant of crickets until they sing each one separately tinnitus crickets summer’s end and love singing their wee grie |
Challenge Word: "morning glory"
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let hurricanes blow
white morning glory binds tight not uprootable after twenty years another weed bucket filled-- same morning glory the morningg glory before dawn gives them color birds sing in chorus a land divided between those who say bindweed and morning glory each in its own way the toad and morning glory make up the garden grey skies and high wind a tropical depression-- blue morning glory |
Challenge Word: "summer"
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string-beans growing tough
with the summer season’s end the scare-crow falls down more where that came from a first kiss at summer’s end bees robbed of honey at the roadside stand wheel-ruts worn deep in the earth a good summer’s end the arc of the earth bends the sea port and starboard summer seems endless |
Challenge Word: "fire"
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among charred timbers
hidden by the For Sale sign a twisted wheelchair drought-fire embers fly the sky rains a meteor on the back-fire crew |
Challenge Word: "barefoot"
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hurricane season
barefoot on waterlogged ground the ones left behind setting off barefoot one should against the wind for the capital some people sometimes the only way to approach barefoot in the snow Memorial Day barefoot and clutching mother he takes his first step barefoot all the way up to her new bathing suit first day on the beach on white-hot beach sand while the girls might be watching a barefoot quick-march |
Challenge Word: "cicada"
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the last cicada
calling and calling lost love before the next frost twelve years underground but the cicada transforms near the end of life to share his secret the cicada emerges shedding his old shell on the downward path the cicada stays with us despite everything the male cicada which has the loudest rattle is empty inside by the old folks’ home an empty cicada-husk split right down the back |
Challenge Word: "meteor"
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the news the fire
hurricane and meteor-- the awful impact a billion-year run— the meteor's streak winks out among fireflies a streak that winks out reflected in window glass-- the meteor's ghost lost in summer’s noon an unacknowledged brilliance-- daylight meteor drought-fire embers fly the sky rains a meteor on the back-fire crew the flames earth sends up answered by a meteor with no need for us |
Challenge Word: "sunflower"
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longing for the sun
in the rain and mud of spring I sow sunflowers drawn to the blue sky more goldfinches break away from the sunflower the sunflower twists all morning all afternoon to face quitting time naming roadside sights a stutter of sunflowers heard from the back seat building crescendo the Halleluiah Chorus-- fields of sunflowers |
Challenge Word: "thunderstorm"
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rushing into church
a gathering thunderstorm-- the Old Testament Thunderstorm coming awful inevitable Old Testamental The flower garden On that summer butterflies Disappeared fragile butterfly thunderstorms in the distance-- distant aren't they? dismounting his bike an approaching thunderstorm-- meet the new boyfriend |
Challenge Word: "sunglasses"
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light is time passing
holding the world together-- and so sunglasses the fashionista a man lost in reflections-- silver sunglasses |