Dave's Haiku Diary, Part 1

Back in mid-March, a friend and I decided we'd each write a Haiku every day. It's been a fun project! I don't think I'm so great at maintaining the proper tone for a Haiku, but I've enjoyed sticking to the line form and syllabic restrictions. Anyway, here some of my favorites from over the last three months...

Memory muscles flex

Clockworks internally set

An exit barely

Virgin paper sheets

Aimless possibility

Youthful echoes bound

Entropy flows East

Fleeting sleet melting daylight

Midnight seeds new life

Iguana cadre

Sandy side sun-soaked snail shells

Fish flying fine wine

The ringing receiver

Reminding me of voices

Reactionary

Tennis ballistics

Tendons, ligaments and joints

Sore beyond the points

Unfurled eyebrows

Syrupy skin, loosened cheeks

An ego exhaled

Sunday Wedding Day

Been waylaid and asked to play

Betrays feet of clay

What’s given is got

And gotten late if at all

But call it all fate

Haiku diary

A daily journal, but short

No poems, just life

Collaboration

Lost to a child’s reticence

Replaced by a game

Waiting for the sleep

Blue light divides the darkness

Numbered time swims through

Anxiety now!

Last minute trip prep two step

Don’t know what to eat

So particulate

Breathing boxes now removed

Vacuum dodging dust

Flowing in my blood

A saccharine poison pill

Misfortune swallowed

Thermos-like beehives

On the trail of the chipmunks

The leash barely holds

Spirit of the pin

Flows through breath to others' ears

Pleading for reprieve

Parallel life lines

How many times have I died?

A mind dips and slips

Another bottle

Whose genie cannot respond

Three wishes long gone

Elusive dreamer

Can’t snatch darkness from the night

A mad dash til dawn

My pandemic strings

Be they flat or be they dead

Still sing you to bed

Hearings go unheard

By those who've removed their ears

Sightings breed new eyes

A Year Ago Today...

It's not everyday I'm crowned royalty. I was the December Featured Artist of the Month for Sound Bridge Music last December. Rumor has it there's no Featured Artist for this December. I think that means I get to wear the crown again...

The Cross Is In The Ballpark

Since reviewing the movie "Obvious Child",  I've been obsessing over Paul Simon's song of the same name.  The drum part of the song has fascinated me since the song was released, but I'd never really listened to the lyrics until recently.  For the most part, it's clearly about a father, followed by his son, reminiscing about the past and meditating on the process of aging.  But some of the specific lyrics are a bit cryptic.  For instance, it's not clear exactly what the singer is talking about when he says, "a lie's a lie's a lie but I say why/why deny the obvious child".  What lie are we talking about exactly?  And is the line supposed to be understood as "why deny the obvious, child" as though he's talking to someone?  Or is it more like "why deny the child, it's obvious"?  Even more confounding is the line "The cross is in the ballpark".  Every other line seems to make sense at least vaguely, but this one comes out of left field (so to speak).  Simon is on record as saying that he originally had the image of the Pope addressing his followers in a ballpark, but then decided it meant that the "crosses we bear" are "in the ballpark" of us being able to deal with them.

I think he's full of it.  After an exhaustive study of the lyrics, which involved me staring at the ceiling late at night in lieu of sleeping, I've concluded that the song is about coming to terms with male pattern baldness, which I suspect was an issue in Simon's life at the time he wrote it.  Basically, the "cross... in the ballpark" is the thin strip of hair across the scalp that divides your bald patch from your forehead.  If you look at this baldness chart, you'll see that receding hair does take on the appearance of a baseball field at an intermediary stage (the bald patch is the diamond and the forehead is the outfield).  Once you accept this interpretation, it clearer what lies he is (or others are) considering, in trying to hide hair-loss.  Why try to hide what's clear to everybody?

If you're interested in looking more closely at this, I've done a line-by-line interpretation of the lyrics and posted it on the Q&A website Quora.

Authentically Yours

OPEN DISCUSSION THREAD

In the creative community, authenticity is a big deal.  Art is all about bringing the real you to the foreground, cutting through the artifice slathered on by our overarching culture.  If only it were that simple.

What is this "real you" we're talking about?  Certainly every action you take is very real, so why wouldn't that be who you really are?  It seems to me that it's rather impossible to escape yourself.  Even when you lie, that need to misrepresent yourself says quite a bit about who you are.  The true you is in everything you do.

Personally, my real me feels a bit schizophrenic.  I feel as though the various parts of my personality are constantly negotiating with each other to keep the ship afloat.  It's hard for me to say that any one part is representative of me-- there are parts that I'm proud of and parts I'm embarrassed by, but they all seem to be the real me.  Which part of me should I put forward when making art?

Personally, I think authenticity is a Will O' The Wisp.  That's not what artists should strive for.  Instead they should strive for inspiration, and where ever they may find it.  If that involves emulating something they love, so be it.  If it means creating something never before seen or heard in the world, all the better.

But if someone finds artistic inspiration, I don't see any purpose in criticizing them for lack of authenticity.  If they dig it, they truly dig it, and that's a good gig, you dig?

So what do you all think about the role of authenticity in art?  What is authenticity?  And how do you recognize it?

A Camera Named Voodoo

OPEN DISCUSSION THREAD

Last weekend there was a massive iCloud security breach that unleashed upon the public scores of nude celebrity photographs.  There are many issues raised by this incident, but the one I'd like to talk about is this:  do cameras steal your soul?

When introduced to the technology, many non-Western cultures feared that a photograph could hold captive an essential part of a person.  Of course, it wasn't just photographs.  Many cultures believed that if someone possessed your likeness, they could in some sense control you... hence Voodoo dolls.

But it goes even deeper than that-- it doesn't have to be a visual likeness, it could merely be your name.  An interesting thing about the Abrahamic God-- the reason why using His name in vain is prohibited is because it was once believed knowledge of someone's name gave you power over that person.  Since you shouldn't feel like you have any power over God, you probably shouldn't get to use or even know His name (it's "Yahweh", by the way).

But names, photos, dolls... they do have a certain power, don't they?  We certainly act like it sometimes.  Having an old photo of a deceased love one or one far away helps us feel closer to them.  When we meet someone who knows our name when we don't know theirs, doesn't that feel vaguely dangerous?  And, geez, I don't want to even talk about somebody owning a doll version of me (maybe an action figure, 'cause that'd be totally rad, you know?). 

But these things are symbols, metaphors.  We treat them as though they hold some piece of us, whether it be good or bad.  It could be a photograph, but it could also be a flag or a diploma.  So what are the things in your life that have captured your soul?  And what do you do to capture the souls of others?

Smell Power!

OPEN DISCUSSION THREAD

So, I was thinking about psychic powers, and I think the world would be a dandy place if there were psychic powers, just because I always wanted to be a superhero...

Anyway, the term "Sixth Sense" gets bandied about as a sort of nick-name for psychic powers, and that sixth sense is also referred to as "Second Sight."  Now the big knock on psychic powers is that, if they existed, then it should be pretty obvious.  You should be able to see the future coming before it hits you, or hear other people's thoughts, etc.

But what if it wasn't like "Second Sight," but more like "Second Smell?"  Not all of our senses are especially sharp, and if psychic powers were more like the sense of smell, then there'd be no question that they would manifest themselves in a fairly vague way.  They say "in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king," but I can't think it would be the same for a man with a keen sense of smell in a world of people lacking an olfactory sense.

So, my question to you, dear readers, is what advantages would you have if you were the only person in the world with the sense of smell?  The sense of touch?  Taste?  And how would you use those advantages to either save, change, or take over the world?