Monday, May 21, 2007

United States of Haiku

Posted by Mickey Z on 05/21 at 04:20 AM
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  1. Good Morning Everyone...RMJ...to respond to your concern about health care for a small independent community. I guess there might be traditional and non-traditional health care workers..that are interested in living a different way. There might be that occasional emergency when one feels only main-stream hospital approaches will work. I really don’t know or can predict the future. I know MY FEARS are being tested right now as I wright this. I have problems with health care as I need it right now and cannot afford it. My only insurance is the Veterans Administation Hospital in Togus, Maine...Well....!? So I am enduring pain and loss of equilibrium frequently while waiting for a doctor’s appointment that I will have to pay out of my pocket. I have missed work...minus$ minus$ VA will probably only want to do the pharaceutical thing. I can’t take drugs. All drugs are like a bad acid trip for me. So I needed some kind of treatment 2 months ago. My VA appointement is June 6, just for a test. The appointment I will pay for, that I can’t afford in May 30! I think FEAR is the biggest obstacle when dealing with the unfamiliar. Then we reinforce that fear with many ‘what ifs’. I too can develop those fears and lists of what ifs? What ifs are paralyzing more frequently than they are a reality. My medical story is simply to make a connection with the reader by the writer...The real concern is individuals genuinely caring of each other, then the group/family will suceed

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  05/21  at  07:38 AM

  2. Since I’m amongst “friends”, and I’m mildly sauced (its early afternoon over here, I hasten to add), I’ll bite.

    my favourite birch,
    has fewer branches this year;
    the winds no stronger

    cult of infinity
    from lhasa to washington
    finity is harder

    missile to stop a
    missile, man to stop a man;
    its all a racket

    Posted by Mew from clophill  on  05/21  at  08:34 AM

  3. Sorry, hello Joe, I’m sorry to hear about your worries. It makes me think how much we take for granted in my country; unless you have something crazy-rare wrong with you, you only really have to worry about the illness itself. And incompetent surgeons, dirty wards, overtired staff and the ever-present fear that we’ll end up with an entirely for-profit/not-for-people system like the US’s. At the moment, its about 50:50. Maybe 60:40.

    Mickey, I especially liked
    “you once seemed very
    important but now you are
    another four years”

    Posted by Mew from clophill  on  05/21  at  08:55 AM

  4. ‘Morning to all. The rain is finally departing eastern MA. Hello MZ, Joe, & Mew.

    Joe, sorry to hear about your healthcare issue (distinct from a health issue, no?). Yes, human contact and caring go a long way, and I would add as healthy a diet as possible.

    MZ, haiku hits the spot today:
    America the _________
    (think carefully about it
    then fill in the blank)

    Dick Cheney drama:
    Evil is a freighted word
    But he pulls his weight

    Soldiers marching out
    Dead, lies, wounded, profit, maimed
    Soldiers marching back

    Federal budget.
    Grand Canyon. Canals of Mars.
    Really massive holes

    “Glory, glory,” song
    Needs a rewrite for empire -
    Republic is dead.

    I like to write them in fives, for some reason. I hope the syllables count right...I’m not totally awake yet.

    Greetings await JOS, Helga, Keir, RMJ, michael, frances, and all the Expendables I’m failing to remember.

    Posted by Zen Prole from Urth  on  05/21  at  09:23 AM

  5. Good morning Joe, it seems you and I share the same fears about western medicines ability to heal.  If by reading you mean studying to find your own help...this is what I resort to as well.
    We are very fortunate here in Canada to have public health care...for now.

    Here are my Haiku contributions:

    Let voices be heard
    Take responsible action
    CP rail blockade

    Clean drinking water
    Is it too much to ask for?
    Stand firm for justice

    Words will never hurt
    Sticks and stones will break my bones
    nursery story-not

    Ass-ish behaviour
    rampant emotional type
    ping so sorry-I

    Happy smiles share a picnic
    tomorrow-today we stand
    with each other for peace

    Good morning also to Mew, Zen and Mickey. 

    Thanks for the inspiration and space to share.

    Posted by frances from bc  on  05/21  at  10:45 AM

  6. I pledge allegiance
    to the flag of the Unite--
    what am I saying?

    +++

    Experts agree: to
    ban the word nigger costs less
    than to ban the thought.

    +++

    Paul Street lately to
    Paul Wolfowitz: why not kill
    yourself? Good question.

    +++

    There are more lines on
    the mirror on W’s
    desk than on this page.

    Captcha says “another” but I think I’ll pass.

    Posted by Keir from the hague  on  05/21  at  10:47 AM

  7. Joe...best wishes towards some sort of positive outcome with your healthcare problem.  I can only imagine what is in store for me in the years to come as I have most likely done enough damage to my body in my life so far to assure many future decisions involving drugs, doctors the ugliness that is our current way of healing.

    haiku:

    I once believed in
    in the old american dream
    but now I do not

    Greetings to Mick, Zen, frances, Keir, Mew and all yet to come.

    Posted by JOS from Chicago  on  05/21  at  11:23 AM

  8. Che Guevara Tee Shirts
    Adorn Teenagers’ torsos
    While the world burns on

    Just a quick one on short notice, more later…

    Posted by James from work  on  05/21  at  11:41 AM

  9. Abu Ghraib

    good will of many
    shattered by mad dogs, broken
    bodies – desert winds!

    (written July 26, 2004)

    Posted by Dr. B from U$A  on  05/21  at  11:47 AM

  10. Not a haiku:

    Neoblues

    Neoconservative
    Neocon
    Neoconvicted
    Neocondominium purchased with neocash
    “In Neogod we trust”
    Neopseudointellectual neoconversation
    Or neopsychopathobabble
    “Neoliberation or neocolonialism?”
    On CNN/Fox/MicrosoftNBC/TimeWarnerAOL News
    Meet the Neopress

    I got neodepressed
    So’s I wents to tha pink neostripmall
    That has a neostrip joint
    With triple XXX sign flashing
    In brilliant neoneon
    The neostrippers had neosylicon tits
    Perfectly manufactured
    That just wasn’t the same
    As the real thing, dig?
    No neobouncers?
    So I left after I finished my neobeer
    And went back home
    To watch neoentertainment on my teevee

    I got the neoblues
    I got the neoblues
    We all got the neoblues
    Polluting our reality
    Neoreality
    No reality
    No
    Reality
    Blues

    (written April 15, 2003)

    Posted by Dr. B from U$A  on  05/21  at  11:49 AM

  11. Healthcare is a strange thing. I don’t recall whether it was Mickey or Jensen who listed “Industrial healthcare is killing us - and we want more of it” as one of a number of modern absurdities. Since we’re living in a toxicified environment, I’ll take the pills to cure me. The “radical” thing to say would be, I’ll take those pills because my being alive a bit longer will give me longer to change things - but I know I’m not that person. The “socialist” thing to say would be, socialised healthcare will keep some other people alive who will strengthen their communities, support their families, love their lovers.
    My suspicion is that a healthy health system will be based on a scientific understanding of bacteriology, nutrition, virology, disease causality and a thoroughly scientific understanding that having toxic substances present in the body will cause illness. Please, reclaim science from the pharmeceutical industry.

    Dr B, not much
    goodwill to be found in
    Clophill, I’m afraid

    (thats goodwill about Abu Graib, not about your poems!)

    Posted by Mew from clophill  on  05/21  at  11:50 AM

  12. I agree Mew #11...the way we live, every aspect of american life is by default a recipe for poor health and premature death for many people...that’s before we get to the doctor’s office. Money before people...any surgeon will be happy to sit down and discuss his new Ferrari with you. Trust your mechanic as the song goes, remove those staples for the doctor didn’t like the traditional method of sewing up the patient. Have you ever been stapled? Tonsils for dollars, auto-wisdom teeth extraction whether it’s needed or not...C-sections, unnecessary in many cases designed to make more money for hospital, D&C, a quick few bucks for the gonocolotist...toxins, poisons, slavery, social control, war...maintaining an upbeat, positive attitude is not always easy and when isolated, when empowering the isolation driven by this inhumane society...we must not!

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  05/21  at  01:01 PM

  13. Hello Expendables...from warm, sunny Astoria. Your haiku are above and beyond my expectations (which were extremely high to begin with). Thanks, all. Keep ‘em coming.

    As for health care, I think this topic effectively illustrates our social vacancy. If there was ever one issue with the potential to unite humans across lines of gender, class, nationality, and ethnicity, health care should be it. Instead, we all bitch and moan about HMOs, etc and we’ll line up to see Michael Moore’s Sicko but the situation just gets worse. The planet is in the throes of a health holocaust but what are any of us doing about it?

    Captcha sez: nothing

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  05/21  at  01:12 PM

  14. I agree with your comment Mickey… “I think this topic effectively illustrates our social vacancy.” In fact I’m surprised ‘the nice people’ don’t charge for helping a crippled, elderly woman across the street. We can only have a social vacancy when we allow our mental ‘armor’ to prevent us from experiencing ourselves and each other as we would under healthier social conditions, minus the state sponsored and reinforced fear, the distrust, the skepticism, then further reinforced by those who accept this oppression...and it all has become so large and overwhelming and this should further strengthen our desires to reclaim our humanity, our common bond.

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  05/21  at  01:26 PM

  15. Solution of unemployment, healthcare, and everything else? Hm…

    http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/963.html

    Posted by James from work  on  05/21  at  01:34 PM

  16. Joe...I am so sad about your current medical situation. It really makes me very angry. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear of someone who is suffering needless pain. I would suggest that you contact your people in Congress, but that has been tried here and it did not help at all. It is all about money. Medicine for profit, run by Wall Street is killing people. Alternative methods help only some times. There are times that the conventional (high profit) medical system is the only answer. Have you contacted your Chapter of Veterans for Peace? Sometimes they can help.  I have found that no one can advocate for himself. Every one needs someone else to speak up for them in a time of crisis.  That is one reason that your idea of forming groups/families is so important.

    I am not really a fan of Michael Moore, but will reserve judgement on “Sicko” until I see it. I am happy that he at least made an attempt to expose the sickness of the medical system.

    Saturday was Malcom Xs birthday. Did we miss it?  Democracy Now showed some film clips of Malcolm today, and also reported the news that was first here on CO on Saturday about the successful protest at the port in California.

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  05/21  at  02:03 PM

  17. I have no talent - to create Haiku
    That is something my brain just can’t do
    That wonderful talent will never be mine
    I will have to stay with plain old rhyme

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  05/21  at  02:15 PM

  18. living in america is a huge pain in the ass, yet it is like not living, when we have to be concerned all the time by the criminals and the criminal methods…

    Posted by Joe of Maine from   on  05/21  at  02:21 PM

  19. joe...you are right again. I know that most here at Mickey’s do not watch TV but last night 60 Minutes did a report about patient dumping.  It was excellent and should be seen by everyone, everyone around the world. It, better than anything I’ve seen recently, exposes the truth about the Capitalistic system. Can you imagine pushing a sick elderly patient out on the curb at skid row. A paralyzed man without a wheelchair was also thrown out. I know that cases like these are not unusual...happens all over the u$a. We have become so lacking in humanity.

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  05/21  at  02:39 PM

  20. The State of American Politics:

    President Carter
    thought he had something to say;
    now he’s not so sure.

    *****

    Fat actor hates Moore,
    fat actor smokes his cigar;
    Actor President?

    *****

    Mr. Gonzales,
    will he stay or will he go?
    Trouble will double.

    *****

    Immigrants are bad?
    Let them stay but build fence high,
    labor is still cheap.

    *****

    Iraq is burning,
    but the rich still need their toys;
    Warhol brings millions.

    Posted by jason from greenpoint, brooklyn  on  05/21  at  02:53 PM

  21. Lots of fine haikus to go with the completely justified dirges about health care.

    About American haiku, I know we’re not voting (rimshot, please) but Keir gets mine for:
    I pledge allegiance
    to the flag of the Unite--
    what am I saying?

    RMJ, I also reserve judgement about “Sicko.” Don’t know that it will change much, but in the absence of real-time real media, documentary films fill part of the void.

    Posted by Zen Prole from Urth  on  05/21  at  03:12 PM

  22. joe, very sorry to hear all that. i hope you get as well as possible as soon as possible.

    re the post, i have never had a go at a haiku. i will try later. in the meantime… did u know that orwell wrote a few poems? this one is excellent. i have put footnotes[..] for some of the references you might not know

    George Orwell
    A little poem

    A happy vicar I might have been
    Two hundred years ago
    To preach upon eternal doom
    And watch my walnuts grow;

    But born, alas, in an evil time,
    I missed that pleasant haven,
    For the hair has grown on my upper lip
    And the clergy are all clean-shaven.

    And later still the times were good,
    We were so easy to please,
    We rocked our troubled thoughts to sleep
    On the bosoms of the trees.

    All ignorant we dared to own
    The joys we now dissemble;
    The greenfinch on the apple bough
    Could make my enemies tremble.

    But girl’s bellies and apricots,
    Roach in a shaded stream,
    Horses, ducks in flight at dawn,
    All these are a dream.

    It is forbidden to dream again;
    We maim our joys or hide them:
    Horses are made of chromium steel
    And little fat men shall ride them.

    I am the worm who never turned,
    The eunuch without a harem;
    Between the priest and the commissar
    I walk like Eugene Aram [1];

    And the commissar is telling my fortune
    While the radio plays,
    But the priest has promised an Austin Seven[2],
    For Duggie always pays.

    I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls,
    And woke to find it true;
    I wasn’t born for an age like this;
    Was Smith? Was Jones? Were you?

    refs…

    1 - http://tinyurl.com/233uj9
    2 - http://tinyurl.com/yt8q8q

    George Orwell: ‘A little poem’
    First published: Adelphi. — GB, London. — December 1936.

    Reprinted:
    — ‘Such, Such Were the Joys’. — 1953.
    — ‘England Your England and Other Essays’. — 1953.
    — ‘The Orwell Reader, Fiction, Essays, and Reportage’ — 1956.
    — ‘Collected Essays’. — 1961.
    — ‘Decline of the English Murder and Other Essays’. — 1965.
    — ‘The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell’. — 1968.

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  05/21  at  03:48 PM

  23. Zen said: About American haiku, I know we’re not voting (rimshot, please) but Keir gets mine for:
    I pledge allegiance
    to the flag of the Unite--
    what am I saying?

    Thats my favorite as well,so far.
    Heres more of Canadian haiku:

    Cantaminated
    Look northwards, with bitter tears
    Uranium mines

    War crimes commited
    First civilian victims
    Our Dene brothers

    We left them to die
    Hoping they would never ask
    Any questions-ever

    Jurisprudence
    If it existed at all
    Would see pirates hang

    Posted by frances from bc  on  05/21  at  04:05 PM

  24. (Outside my window just now)

    Old man with a cane
    dodging traffic like a saint
    it’s good you can’t hear

    An education
    from a university
    requires filling out forms

    The long hard journey
    to the ultimate answer
    began with YouTube

    I keep wondering
    what are we yakking about
    on all our cellphones

    I like this natural one:
    (Not by me… it comes from an old Dennis Brown song.)

    Concrete castle king
    I hope you will understand
    We are suffering

    I saw this one in my Spanish newspaper-- an Army recruitment ad:

    What sets you apart.
    Honor. Duty. Loyalty.
    Makes you one of us.

    So I came up with this one:

    Dishonorable
    Leaders speaking of duty
    Are really traitors.

    Posted by Robert B. Livingston from San Francisco, California  on  05/21  at  05:29 PM

  25. “When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”
    ---George Bernard Shaw

    Posted by Keir from the hague  on  05/21  at  05:41 PM

  26. onr for the advertisers…

    it won’t excite me
    your next asinine product
    shove it up your arse

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  05/21  at  05:52 PM

  27. No American or Australian haiku from me - only another ‘Thank you’ to you, Mickey, for all you do and write on this blog and for other blogs/magazines.  Welcome back to the ‘Big Apple’!

    And from a damp Daylesford, where it has been raining on and off for the last week, greetings go to Mew, Joe of Maine, Zen Prole (thanks so much for YOUR pre-emptive greetings), frances, Keir, JOS (in the ‘Windy City), James, Dr B., Rosemarie (nice verse there), Jason and Robert B. Livingston.

    All best for all of you, Helga

    Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia  on  05/21  at  07:35 PM

  28. Who can imagine a book of Expendable haiku?

    Anyway, thanks again. I’ll leave this up another day and see what else we get.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  05/21  at  09:21 PM

  29. Here’s more...amerikan...Haiku

    Kill, Kill, Kill
    Suffer, Suffer
    Lie, Lie, Lie

    Pay, Pay, Pay
    Fear, Fear,
    Die, Die Die

    Vote Start Again

    Kill, Kill, Kill
    $$$$, $$$$, $$$$
    With Pride We

    Shall defend our

    Enslavement We shall
    Support our Enslavement
    Till Our Death

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  05/22  at  01:13 PM

  30. i think this little post may just go ballistic so a little help when the trolls turn up would not go amiss…

    http://tinyurl.com/2m9j3b

    YOUR ANCESTORS WERE SHEEP!

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  05/22  at  03:18 PM

  31. Keir #25...I like that one.
    HI Michael, Joe, Helga, Mickey, Mr Livingston, frances, Jason, Zen, and all others....
    I guess that Mickey was right about “Sicko”. Mike Moore is quoted as saying, by implication, that the medical care that the prisoners at Gitmo get is “good”.  He made similar mistakes in 9/11. The radio talk shows are taking full advantage of this piece of propaganda.

    Today the sun is shining here. It is really beautiful this time of year. The birds are chirping. The rabbits are dancing around. Every night at sunset a couple of deer come to visit and check things out.

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  05/22  at  03:46 PM

  32. RMJ, when the dog is fit and healthy i will send her over to chase your squirrels away… i am not usually the type for cute animal photos but here she is post-operation. she has to keep that thing on for another week and she can’t get out for walks which is driving her mad…

    Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  05/22  at  04:05 PM

  33. Ahhhh, she is soooo cute. The squirrels will fall in love with her!

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  05/22  at  04:07 PM

  34. well, as you can sort of see in the photo we have to keep her tied to the coffee table so she can’t run about and wreck her leg again. it was that or put here in a small cage and we didnt have the heart to do that. she has to stay that way for at least another week. she also has to keep the lampshade on till she gets the stitches out (it stops her from gnawing at them and removing them).

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  05/22  at  04:16 PM

  35. re the post on my blog - the hit counter is going nuts (comparitively)

    ‘also, does anyone else find the term “god-botherers” hilarious?

    it’s a much funnier phrase than bible bashers/thumpers

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  05/22  at  05:25 PM

  36. Michael of Scotland, the little lady is very cute. Give her many hugs for me. Mickey...I have not seen anything of Moore’s Sicko. I don’t expect anything really heavy from Moore. Presenting a serious issue, satirically is an excellent formula for pissing me off. I hope he does not downplay the seriousness of the triad of death, insurance companies, medical profession, pharmaceutical companies. I don’t know why he presented his previous movies as he did. I don’t know the man. For some reason, I don’t think he needs to fear assassination???

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  05/22  at  07:19 PM

  37. I can’t remember if I shared this story about a violin player with you. I thought, declined, decided to. Kenneth Walker stated, Consciousness, Conscious of Consciousness

    http://www.ratical.org/ratville/future/listener.html

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  05/22  at  07:28 PM

  38. Hello Expendables. I’d like to clarify: I haven’t seen Sicko and don’t know much about it. My comment was more aimed at the idea of dissent becoming yet another commodity...a fashion, if you will.

    Even captcha sez: show

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  05/22  at  07:30 PM

  39. Hi Mickey...another commodity...a fashion, if you will...It already has become this. I wonder how many long term activists feel manipulated...responding to external events, basic stimuli>response, and not as self-directed as some activists might think??? Activism for dollars exists. Activists bumper stickers, buttons for dollars...the authorities love all this...passive...activity. How can being passive be activity. Is this like reciting Gandhi or Christ, knowing this is music to the ears of authority...and yes, the feeling of helplessness...how can one person take on the entire police force, knowing that at least half the population will support the police and not you or me......how many people denounce the established institutions simply because it appears hip? Like the hippies of the 60’s who found it very easy to later support capitalism. Carrying a sten one minute then working as an engineer later because he wanted some? Some what?

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  05/22  at  08:54 PM

  40. I love Mickey Z and this haiku project-- All on the right track--

    here is more:

    Acknowledgement of fantasies and desires; positing new realities.

    Here’s a podcast I am really excited about and wish to tell everyone here about it:

    Tues 5.22.07| Stephen Duncombe on Spectacular Vernacular
    http://www.againstthegrain.org/
    (link to book on the side)

    Direct link to mp3:
    http://tinyurl.com/2kr359

    Amy Franceschini here in San Francisco has a great project-- Community Gardens)
    She really grabs people’s imaginations.
    http://tinyurl.com/2spn2z

    Let’s not be down about resistance-- let’s be more creative!

    Posted by Robert B. Livingston from San Francisco, California  on  05/23  at  12:02 AM

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