by Alison

a large ant carries

a small dead fly on the floor-

I kill it

by Alison

“It’s SOOO cool…” she says

while poking the poor slug with

a dandelion

by Kelly

I leap out of bed,

snap on the light, whip back the

covers — There! A Tick!

by Alison

tenderly I scratch

his head, neck, shoulders and find….

a tick on his back!

by Kelly

No matter how I

slice, her name won’t fit in a

meaningful haiku:

Isabella Rosellinni

Before a room filled

with women (and a few men),

she talked ageism.

When she turned 40,

Lancome sent her flowers and

flowers and flowers.

First she was flattered

then it hit her: the flowers

were for her funeral.

After 14 years

as the company’s model,

she was done–fired.

“The emphasis placed

on women’s beauty is part

of our oppression.”

Then she said, “I get

ofended when people say

you don’t look your age.”

“I’m happy to be

who I am. I’m 59.”

She continued on,

“You get the wrinkles,

of course, but you also get

enormous freedom.”

Finally she’s doing

what she always wanted to,

and that’s make movies.

Isabella Rosellinni, actress and super model, spoke in Minneapolis on Monday night. I had the pleasure of going to hear her speak.

I was delighted to learn about the newest role Ms. Rosellinni has taken on: film writer and producer. If you’ve got a moment, you simply must check out the two-minute movies she made for the Sundance Channel called Green Prono, which are all about the sex lives of insects.

Ms. Rosillinni was in town as part of the Smart Talk lecture series. In the coming months, Ann Compton and Sigourney Weaver will both come through Minneapolis.

As an official “Smart Talk Blogger,” I’ll be penning haiku about what each one of them has to say. Or, if you think you’d like to take in the events yourself, I have a coupon code to offer: KW2011.

Read more Smart Talk haiku.

by Kelly

Now that I am well into my third straight year of haiku, my friends and family have solidly decided that “haiku” related goodies are a safe bet when it comes to giving me gifts. And they aren’t wrong. I’m always thrilled to discover a new “haiku” thing.

Recently, one of my friends gave me a haiku book that she found in a sale bin at her local library. The book, called The Four Seasons, has a copyright date of 1958. The cost listed on the inside flap is $1.00. It was published by Peter Pauper Press, which–by the way–still exists.

Other than a few small snags to the book jacket, this slim volume of poetry is in good shape. Granted, it smells like my grandma’s upstairs closet, but that’s part of its charm.

All of the haiku in the book are translations from the Japanese masters. There are poems from Basho, Buson, Issa and more. One thing I found interesting about the book is that there is no credit given to a translator. The introduction mentions, of course, that the haiku have been translated from their original Japanese, throwing off the 5-7-5 syllable count, but that’s as far as it goes in crediting a translator. Despite that, I flagged several haiku in the book as “favorites.”

Here’s one that was written by Rikei:

sad twilight cricket…

yes, I have wasted once again

those daylight hours

Something that struck me while reading this collection of haiku was to large number to which I could relate. I don’t know why this surprised me. I’ve read haiku from the masters before and have encountered many poems I liked. I wonder this time if it was the packaging. This particular book of haiku looks, feels and smells old. Perhaps the combination of these sensory experiences predisposed me to thinking the haiku within would also look, feel and smell old, and thus not be of my world.

How wrong I was. So many of them jumped from the page into my world. It was as if I could have penned them myself. Consider this haiku by Issa:

Congratulations

Issa! … You have survived to feed

this year’s mosquitoes

When I read it, I immediately thought of this haiku, which I posted last May:

year’s first mosquito

familiar prick on my arm

i live and let live

I was also drawn to this haiku by Ransetsu:

a childless housewife …

how tenderly she touches

little dolls for sale

Regular readers of Haiku By Two, perhaps, will pick up on this poem’s “infertility” theme and recognize it as a topic I’ve been posting haiku about for quite some time.

I guess what I’m trying to say about this “old” collection of haiku, is that while reading it I felt connected to the human experience.

Issa lived between the years of 1763 and 1827. Even way back then, people experienced mosquitoes in the same way that I experience them today.

The small volume of haiku that my friend gave me was printed in 1958, but before it could ever make it to press, someone, some editor somewhere, had to sift through countless translations of countless haiku and select the few ones he or she thought would most appeal to an American audience who knew nothing (or very little) about either haiku or Japan.

This editor who lived six decades ago, had also experienced mosquitoes in the same way that Issa had, and in the same way that I experienced them in the year 2010. This blows me away.

And that is my point, which I don’t want to overdraw at the risk of making it banal, but perhaps the feelings I felt while reading this old book full of even older poems can go a long way toward explaining the ongoing appeal of haiku.

by Alison

I strategize ways

to rid the world of bed bugs

with essential oils

No, I am not kidding. Although I have never met a bed bug in person, I cannot stand them and spend far too much time thinking about them. When I am on a sofa at my favorite coffee shop I wonder if I will encounter one. When I buy used toys for Penny at the thrift shop I stick them in the freezer for 3 weeks before I let her play with them, in order to kill any potential vermin. When I am at the gym I inspect the mats before I lie down to stretch on them. I know this is strange but I can’t help myself and I feel even more ridiculous knowing that New Hampshire is not high-risk bed bud territory. So much do I detest these dime shaped vermin that I cannot even fathom posting a picture of them on this site. Ick.

But they are making the news with more and more frequency and so bed bugs stay on my mind. Are you grossed out yet? I’m so sorry. I guess my fear of bed bugs might be my phobia if I do have one. And what about you? Do you have a phobia? Please share! It will be nice to know that I am not the only one

by Alison

his bad joke annoys -

suddenly the spider bite

on my neck itches

by Kelly

dead fly on counter–

naked trees stand bravely in

anemic sunlight

by Alison

crisp August

remembers September -

gypsy moth cocoons