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Per Diem Archive: P. Heinrich October 2013, Urban Haiku

Urban Haiku

Haiku are usually defined as poems of nature. Looking to cities for haiku may seem contradictory but the same sky that drifts over the plains looms above the city. Birds fly, animals caper, flowers and trees bloom, offering many opportunities for fine haiku. In the midst of all the cement and concrete are multitudes of humans by the thousands, and where there are humans, a poignant or ironic scene awaits the perceptive poet. Along with true haiku, many that appear this month are senryu, the haiku of human nature.

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Author: Michael Ketchek
blizzard shutting down
the city-drug dealer
still at his corner
Author: Adelaide B. Shaw
bus stop –
the winter dance
of cold feet
Author: Bruce Ross
parking tower
a white-throated sparrow singing
on an empty floor
Author: Edward Rielly
St. Patrick's night --
an old man pounds his fist
on the hood of a taxi
Author: Ralf Bröker
Back to work
someone else
in my parking place
Author: Adele Kenny
at the bus stop breathing in the bus
Author: Alexis K. Rotella
He's elected mayor -
the boy who pulled
my pigtails
Author: Jeffrey Winke
a hawk glides 
between downtown buildings
cloudless sky
Author: Charles Trumbull
a few tiles missing
from the chessboard in the park --
November sun
Author: Paul David Mena
in the taxicab
      a gold fish
restless in his bowl
Author: Dietmar Tauchner
escalator
up from the subway tunnel
snowfall
Author: Wendy Wright
searching
even among skyscrapers -
first pear blossoms
Author: 'Haiku Elvis' (Carlos Colón)
haiku conference
even the taxi driver
has an opinion
Author: Roberta Beary
parade over
one last twirl
of her baton
Author: John Stevenson
what a hard job
it must be
Statue of Liberty
Author: Margaret Chula
at Murasaki's grave
birds chitter from the trees
roar of traffic
Author: Gregory Piko
uptown girl
i listen to her speak
as fast as i can
Author: David Gershator
uptown IRT
too many heads
block the poetry
Author: Jim Kacian
after black dreams the urban orange night
Author: Jerry Kilbride
jet-black tunnel
the sudden blast 
of autumn color
Author: Dave Russo
too hot to sleep . . .
from the fire truck's siren
a map of  the streets
Author: Francine Banwarth
winter stars . . .
the sirens
fade
Author: Pamela Miller Ness
St. Patrick's Day
a traffic cop directs
gridlock
Author: Michael Ketchek
urban dusk
another shot
clanks off the rim
Author: David Grayson
wine rings
on the cafe tables --
spring wind
Author: Gregory Piko
her iPhone
back between her thighs
the traffic moves on
Author: Bill Cooper
up warm subway stairs the shifting mix of scents
Author: Elizabeth Searle Lamb
outside the museum
two pigeons drink reflections
of a skyscraper
Author: Tom Clausen
city night
a light left on
the 43rd floor
Author: Michael Dylan Welch
still thinking about
   that bird in the tunnel -
the radio flares back on
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