Category: Poetry

Haiku Poetry and How to Write it! (part 2)

Willow
Pen & Ink by Trisha Sugarek

 

In Japan the Samurai/poets would frequently write Haiku before battle. Death poems were considered a necessity, graceful, natural, and emotionally neutral, in accordance with the teachings of Buddha.

Like a rotten log
half buried in the ground
my life, which has not flowered,
comes to this sad end. 
Minamoto Yorimasa  1104-1180

Samurai Song  ©  T.Sugarek

delicate blossom
rests in the still gnarled hand
bruised petals weep tears

weary eyes open
tiny cuts, the body bleeds
peace still years away

sun rise breaks the hill
heralds another battle
draw your sword and charge

   ( Three sets, three lines each.     First line = 5 syllable, second line = 7 syllables, third line = 5 syllables) Traditionally, some reference to nature should be included. Continue reading “Haiku Poetry and How to Write it! (part 2)”

Charles Bukowski, as He Lay Dying

Throughout the millennium many cultures have had the tradition of writing a death poem or a death song.  In Japan the Samurai/poets would recite their death poem as they opened their own bellies with their sword. samurai Death poems are typically graceful, natural, and emotionally neutral, in accordance with the teachings of Buddha.

Like a rotten log
half buried in the ground
my life, which has not flowered, comes
to this sad end.   Minamoto Yorimasa  1104-1180

death songsNative American warriors would sing their death song as they rushed into battle.
‘When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.’ Unknown

In the collection of Charles Bukowski’s work, Pleasures of the Damned, he wrote poetry about dying as he slowly lost his battle with cancer.  Beautiful work.  Not sad, just reality, simply Bukowski.  I have read and re-read this 500+ page tome and gone from laughing at his cat and the mocking bird to mourning his passing.poet, wisdom, Charles Bukowski (below)  I have fallen in love with this wild, derelict genius and profited by him; I am a better writer for having known him.

Sun coming down © Charles Bukowski

no one is sorry I am leaving
not even I;
but there should be a minstrel
or at least a glass of wine.

it bothers the young most, I think:
an unviolent slow death
still it makes any man dream;
you wish for an old sailing ship,
the white salt-crusted sail
and the sea shaking out hints of immortality.

sea in the nose
sea in the hair
sea in the marrow, in the eyes
and yes, there in the chest.

will we miss
the love of a woman or music or food
or the gambol of the great mad muscled
horse, kicking clods and destinies
high and away
in just one moment of the sun coming down?

but now it’s my turnbukow.typwriter
and there’s no majesty in it
because there was no majesty
before it
and each of us, like worms bitten
out of apples,
deserves no reprieve

death enters my mouth
and snakes along my teeth
and I wonder if I am frightened of
this voiceless, unsorrowful dying that is
like the drying of a rose?

And I close with my own simple offering.

death comes ©  Haiku by  t. sugarek

death comes silently
death comes with a loud screaming
death at his own hand

death comes suddenly
detroit’s bright twisted metal
steam, fire, cold asphalt

boring death, sweet death
slow trip down a lonely road
lines drip, machines beep

History, stories, poets…they all contribute to this writer’s imagination and creativity.

Interview with Charles Bukowski (posthumous)
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Do YOU Learn Anything from History or Make the same Mistakes…Again?

famous quotes, famous writers, history, poetry, Bukowski, Churchill          I looked up this quote to be certain I quoted it with accuracy and low and behold!  Today is the day that Winston Churchill  (you all know how much I love him)   and Charles Bukowski (you know I am obsessed with him) meet. Considering it’s my blog I guess it was inevitable.  

Winston Churchill was one of the greatest ‘coiner of phrases’ that the world has ever seen.  He said, ‘those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it’ back in the early 1900’s.  Not much has changed and it seems that we are, indeed, doomed to repeat and repeat.

Ironically, Bukowski wrote this prose back in the early 1950’s.  It could have been written yesterday;  we’re still at war, the politicians still suffer from the malady of greed and power. Government still disregards the weak, the old, the impoverished, the helpless……..famous quotes, famous writers, Bukowski, Churchill, famous men

putrefaction ©  (Bukowski)

of late
I’ve had this thought
that this country
has gone backwards
4 or 5 decades
and that all the
social advancement
the good feeling of
person toward
person
has been washed
away
and replaced by the same
old
bigotries.

we have
more than ever
the selfish wants of power
the disregard for the
weak
the old
the impoverished
the
helpless.

we are replacing want with
war
salvation with
slavery.

we have wasted the
gains

we have become
rapidly
less.

we have our Bomb
it is our fear
our damnation
and our
shame.

now
something so sad
has hold of us
that
the breath
leaves
and we can’t even
cry.

‘Oh no!’ you cry, ‘Trish is going all political on us’.  Not at all.  It’s still about the writing and the wordsmiths of our time.
I just found it so poignant that these two great men,  so very different in their calling and their craft would come to the same philosophical place decades apart.  One man was a great statesman, a world leader and a wordmaster at the highest level. The other man, a dissolute, drunken, promiscuous, wild genius of a writer.  One pronounced wisdom in a pedantic, clear statement, leaving nothing to interpretation or misunderstanding. The other’s rantings makes you see it, breath it, taste it, feel it.

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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!    “The Writer’s Corner”

In addition to my twice weekly blog I will also feature an interview with another author once a month. These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal,  Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Tasha Alexander, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Andrew Grant, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!   Jeffrey Deaver was October’s author and Patrick Taylor will join us in November.  Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author.

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To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

He Always Makes Me Smile…and Think!

famous authors, Charles Bukowski, interviews, best selling authors    More from Charles Bukowski……..His insight is pure truth but who among us would think in quite this way?  Never a glass far from his hand, never a woman far from his arm, never a stubby pencil far from his fingers…the genius wrote and wrote and then wrote some more… and very little of it was false.

 

it’s strange  ©

it’s strange when famous people die
whether they have fought the good fight or
the bad one.
it’s strange when famous people die
whether we like them or not
they are like old buildings old streets Continue reading “He Always Makes Me Smile…and Think!”

Inspiration…Take It Wherever, whenever You Can (part 7)

lying.trees      I find inspiration for my writing, be it stories, plays, or poetry in sometimes the most unlikely places.  But, I never say ‘no’.  Free your brain and spirit and let it GOOOO!

While driving today, out of the corner of my eye I saw a yellow blur on the other side of the freeway. It was just an instant impression and then I was on down the road.   A big Caterpillar loader lying peacefully under some trees, and if I squinted my eyes almost closed, it might have been a large animal lying there asleep in the shade.  With its legs tucked under its body, its neck stretched out long, its head resting in the loam below.  It looked so alive, there by itself, content to rest in the shade of the trees until someone came.  And this is what popped into my head.  It’s called ‘free association’…..what can I say?!

a well deserved rest  ©

driving down the road
i spied a huge loader, sleeping
tucked under several  trees Continue reading “Inspiration…Take It Wherever, whenever You Can (part 7)”

An Ode to Our Cats…Hank and me (Part 2)

In his later years when he ran out of things to say about drinking, the sad state of the world, women, and brawling,  Charles (Hank) Bukowski wrote some really good stuff about his cats.  He always had one or two or five hanging around and his love and admiration for them shines through his words.
He inspired me to write an ‘ode’ to my most recent cats.  We have a lot in common, Hank and I.  Nowadays, I try to have only one cat at a time but in the past I’ve had up to five.  My downfall was that I decided to breed Persian cats….but, damn!  When the kittens were born, I couldn’t bear to give them up.  That ended my breeding days.

Here is an ode to Hank’s mean, old, junk-yard dog of a Cat.cat lovers, cats, Charles Bukowski

bad fix   by Charles Bukowski

old Butch, they fixed him
the girls don’t look like much
anymore.

when Big Sam moved out
of the back
I inherited big Butch,
70 as cats go, old, fixed,
but still as big and
mean a cat as anybody
ever remembered
seeing. Continue reading “An Ode to Our Cats…Hank and me (Part 2)”

An Ode to Our Cats….Hank and me

In this two part post, I write about the love of cats.  I know, I know!  You either hate ’em or love ’em. Both camps are die-hards.  You can’t live with one or you can’t live without one, or two, or three!  For all of Charles Bukowski’s hard living, boozing, philandering, drunken brawls and genius writing, he was a complete softie when it came to cats….even cats that weren’t his own.  He inspired me to write this ode to my dear old Shadow who died and to my new cat, ‘Wild Thang’.  In part two I feature his poetry about his cats.

An Ode to our Cats….Hank and me

she was a feral kitten in the back alleycat lovers, cats, Charles Bukowski

hiding under the deck

she crept out one day while I sat in the

sun, reading and

the first time I picked Shadow up

she shit all over me, so afraid

she was of any human

Next time, she didn’t shit on me and

slowly we became friends

for the next sixteen years

she was one hundred and twelve

when she died Continue reading “An Ode to Our Cats….Hank and me”

‘Hair Cut…Two Bits’…. Nostalgia – (part 6)

Just because……….the few people that have purchased or read my first book of poetry seemed to love this story the most, I thought I would share it with my readers.

cathedral, New Orleans, history, music This story originated from old papers, receipts and journals owned by Marcel Guerman that I found in a trunk in the attic of a building on Camp Street in New Orleans.  The building was being renovated into apartments and I was to be the first tenant.  My third floor walk-up looked out on St. Patrick’s cathedral. (seen here)  One day we crept up to the attic to take a look. Among the many things in the attic was a single, cherrywood door of an armoire that I have to this day. Off in a corner was a leather and metal ribbed trunk forgotten for decades. As I read pawn tickets, journals, papers of this stranger’s life, from decades earlier,  I could envision this European man as clearly as if he stood next me.    I wrote the first draft in 1979. Continue reading “‘Hair Cut…Two Bits’…. Nostalgia – (part 6)”

Ever Think That You Could Write Haiku Poetry?

Haiku, poetry, writing, blogging, Japanese, writer, writingWant to try your hand at writing Haiku?  It’s fun, creative and easy once you commit to the fact that ‘less is more’.

When I begin a new haiku I keep it short and don’t worry about the number of syllables in each line; you can trim it later.  Stay as true to the form as possible but still get the essence of your poetry down.

Five Syllables, then Seven  ©  by Trisha Sugarek

pocket full of poems
little stories at a glance
makes me cry, laugh, sigh

pocket full of poems
glimpses into a deep heart
bares all, bares nothing

syllables counted
the soul giggles, delighted
with the ancient prose

The Seasons of the Sun ©

angle of fall’s sun
so different from spring’s rays
dapples the sun porch

end of hot summer
the crisp, sharp tang of fall’s breath
smokes the air about

a waiting for sleep
under the blanket of snow
until spring sun beams

Inspiration?….anywhere I can get it! (part 6)

inspiration, Robert Service, writing                  I was re-reading some of Robert Service’s poetry the other day preparing a new posting for my blog.  And I happened across one I had not read before…..entitled ‘Inspiration’  I  find it  fascinating that writers are saying the same thing whether it is  1900 or 2013 .

It inspired me to share it with you because the poem talks about the same things that I’ve said.  About being open to what’s around you; how it can inspire you.  Who’s around you;  it can inspire you.  What you hear and see;  it can inspire you.

INSPIRATION  by Robert Service

How often have I started out
with no thought in my noddle,
and wandered here and there about,
where fancy bade me toddle;;
 till feeling faunlike in my glee
 I’ve voiced some gay dsitiches,
returning joyfully to tea,
a poem in my britches.

A-squatting on a thymy slope
with vast of sky about me,
I’ve scribbled on an envelope
the rhymes the hills would shout me;
the couplets that the trees would call,
the lays the breezes proffered…
 oh no, I didn’t think at all-
I took what Nature offered.

For that’s the way you ought to write-
without a trace of trouble;
be super-charged with high delight
and let the words out-bubble;
be voice of vale and wood and streamservice
without design or proem:

then rouse from out a golden dream
to find you’ve made a poem.

So I’ll go forth with mind a blank,
and sea and sky will spell me;
and lolling on a thymy bank
I’ll take down what they tell me;
as Mother Nature speaks to me
her words I’ll gaily docket,
so I’ll come singing home to tea
a poem in my pocket.
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inspiration, cabin, writing, writersI’ve mentioned before how nurturing my cabin is, tucked in a hollow in the Blue Ridge mountains of north Georgia. And like Robert Service I have responded to stream, vale, wood, sky and trees (particularly when I write Haiku).  I have had some of my best writing hours there.  A ripple on the pond, a single leaf floating down amidst the branches, the sun winking between trees, the song of a bird; all have given me inspiration and quieted this crazed thing between my ears.  Open your heart, your mind, your eyes and ears and inspiration will find you!

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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!   
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Maya Angelou, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Caroline Leavitt, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!  Mark Childress is our April author.  Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author.  July features Rhys Bowen.  Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter.
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To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!