Nagasaki (two haiku)

a break in the clouds
gave way to that sunrise –
Nagasaki

the morning prayers
rose heavenward that day –
Nagasaki

(Notes: The primary target August 9 was cloud-covered. The bomber crew went to the secondary target, Nagasaki, where a break in the clouds allowed them to drop the bomb.

Nagasaki was the most Catholic city in Japan at the time of the bombing)

Lord: We pray that atomic weapons will never be used again in war.

Walking the dog (haiku)

walking with Ruby
on a clear October night -
the stars, oh, the stars

Iceland's volcano

Iceland's volcano

has conquered Europe's air space -

who needs an air force?

Haiku: Dad's funeral

Bugler blows taps

at father's funeral -

squirrel stops to stare

New Year Haiku (2010)

reading my list
of New Year's resolutions -
more of the same

a variation ---

reading my list
of New Year's resolutions -
same old, same old

Two Haiku: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

walk in the woods
noticing the mushrooms –
August 6

a break in the clouds
gave way to sunrise –
Nagasaki

I have posted these before, but we are marking the anniversaries again.

Dear Lord,
let not the light of Your love
of Your sacrifice
be lost
in the fires of destruction
and fear
and hate

Haiku: with vacant eyes

evening twilight -
girl leaves abortion clinic
with vacant eyes

Haiku: Mass for Life

I can't make tonight's Mass for Life. Here's a haiku from a previous Mass:

Mass for life -
tearful woman prays for
child she did not have

Haiku: Praying Pro-Lifers

praying pro-lifers -
girl entering the clinic
avoids eye contact

Haiku: At The Clinic

nurse avoids looking
in garbage pail she empties -
abortion clinic

Coffee, donuts, exams, bzzzzz

chocolate donuts

coffee with extra sugar -

final exams time

(Thanks to Catholic Teacher Musings for the "Bad Haiku" inspiration. Happy Birthday Laura.)

What else happened on Pentecost?

On Sunday, my mind was originally not on events in Wichita.

It was Pentecost Sunday, and the final Sunday for the regular choir before our summer break. I will miss the choir, though Rock of Faith will continue to practice, and is scheduled to play at least once.

Deacon Angelo preached. I love to listen to his down-to-earth homilies. This Sunday, part of what he talked about was taking part in the annual Good Friday Stations of the Cross in Reparation for Abortion - the same event in which I take part each year. How ironic given what would be happening just a few hours later in Wichita.

It was also Asian Pacific American Heritage Family Day at the Memorial Art Gallery. Amid the dancing, crafts, and music, there was a reading of haiku.

I was one of the readers.

The members of the Rochester Area Haiku Group explained what haiku is, and members read some of their haiku.

I love to hear the other poets' haiku. Several of the local poets have international reputations - one just came back from doing a haiku workshop in India! - and I learn so much from just listening to them.

My own haiku lack the depth of some of the others, but I do provide a bit of humor.

arrive at work
lunch still on kitchen counter -
foggy morning

I also often add a bit of faith.

Ash Wednesday -
the check-out girl
wipes her forehead

after sunrise
one star still visible -
Christmas day

I am lucky to have such a group here in Rochester.

Good preaching at Mass - good music - good poetry - so many ways to be inspired.

So many ways to be touched by the Spirit.

So many ways to spread God's message.

Pentecost Sunday

Pentecost Sunday –
cantor turns red when she
sings the wrong note


(An oldie)

Haiku to you too

As part of my planned avoidance of the Obama/Notre Dame lunacy yesterday (though I did say a prayer), I attended the Rochester Area Haiku Group meeting to talk about the upcoming chapbook we are producing. No title yet - we have to vote on that - but we read aloud our poems that will be in it (I have 4!). It's due out this summer.

We also learned about an opportunity for a public reading.

We will be pat of the program at Asian Pacific American Heritage Family Day celebration, Sunday, May 31, from 2:30 - 3:15 p.m. at the Memorial Art Gallery here in Rochester.

I'll be digging out some oldies, as well as the ones going in the chapbook.

Stop by if you are in Rochester. I'm the overweight guy with a white beard who looks suspiciously like someone who might sit on a throne at the mall around Christmas time.

Haiku for a chapbook

Our local haiku group is putting together a chapbook with a focus on the seasons and New Years.

I'm submitting a few, two of which had been published before:

heat wave Mass -
moved by the spirit
and the fans

crisp autumn day –
red-tailed hawk scrutinizes
filled bird feeder

moonlit room –
the dog’s toys next to the box
that hold her ashes

Ash Wednesday
the check-out girl
wipes her forehead

April morning-
cardinals in conclave
at the bird feeder
- (bottle rockets, Volume 7, #2 2006)


leaving the vet’s
without my daughter’s cat –
chilly wind
- (bottle rockets, Volume 7 #2 2006)


New Year’s Day –
first resolution broken
before sunrise

I wonder if any of them will be accepted?

In searching for poems to submit, I realized how few haiku I'd written lately, and how few of my haiku are seasonal in nature. I tend toward senryu - "haiku" that make observations about human nature.

John Paul II - A Haiku

April morning

cardinals in conclave

at the bird feeder

Today is the anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death. I wrote the above haiku back then inspired by the events of that April.

New Year's haiku

New Year's Eve -
scattering resolutions
like confetti

Hot Mass Haiku

Heat wave Mass -
moved by the Spirit
and the fans

Morning Mass Haiku (Senryu)

New priest pauses Mass
to get the hosts he forgot -
Nervous Ordo?

St. Padre Pio and Brother Bee

As I traveled about yesterday doing errands and visiting my father, I stopped as I like to do at the St. Padre Pio Chapel in Gates (a suburb of Rochester).

There was one car in the parking lot. When I went into the chapel though, no one was there. I sat in a back pew listening to the birds outside, saying a few prayers and doing some spiritual reading. This chapel dedicated to that good Italian Capuchin has become a treasured place of peace and prayer for me here in Rochester.

After a while, I heard some rumbling. At first I thought maybe the person in the car I had seen was in the basement moving something. The rumbling came again. Moving something? Or thunder?

Sure enough, it started to rain. The rain grew heavier, striking the roof, echoing throughout the chapel. I listened to the sound and looked out the windows at the rain, thanking God for the beauty of the moment. Finally I went over to one of the windows to look outside.

As I looked at the fields, my attention was suddenly drawn to the motion on the outside frame of the window. A bee was there, moving in from the rain, and then holding tight to the frame.

He and I were both finding a moment of peace thanks to the chapel.

Summer thunderstorm -
Franciscan chapel shelters
Brother Bee and me