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Six haiku (or “lowku”)

  • In a field of flowers
  • two abandoned
  • bicycles.
  • Busy with words
  • he drinks the fly
  • in his cup.
  • Dark night:
  • no refuge
  • from the banging gate.
  • my new
  • fix-it-yourself manual
  • used as a doorstop
  • What to write
  • about the girl checking
  • her make-up in a puddle?
  • Even my father
  • says I’m
  • looking old.

John Brandi is probably our country’s best known haiku poet. But Brandi doesn’t worry about following the rules of Japanese haiku; the requirement, for example, that the poem be 17 syllables long and contain a reference to a particular season. Franklin Straus, a San Diego poet and children’s book author who passed away several years ago, used to call this Americanized brand of haiku by the name “lowku” and that seems perfectly fitting for Brandi’s wonderful adaptation of that traditional Japanese form. He writes: “If I’m in the right state of openness — intellect absent, the world before me as is, no hint of another to come — then poems arrive unexpectedly, as they should.” These six epiphanic poems are from Brandi’s collection Weeding the Cosmos, published by La Alameda Press. The poems are used with the author’s permission.

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  • In a field of flowers
  • two abandoned
  • bicycles.
  • Busy with words
  • he drinks the fly
  • in his cup.
  • Dark night:
  • no refuge
  • from the banging gate.
  • my new
  • fix-it-yourself manual
  • used as a doorstop
  • What to write
  • about the girl checking
  • her make-up in a puddle?
  • Even my father
  • says I’m
  • looking old.

John Brandi is probably our country’s best known haiku poet. But Brandi doesn’t worry about following the rules of Japanese haiku; the requirement, for example, that the poem be 17 syllables long and contain a reference to a particular season. Franklin Straus, a San Diego poet and children’s book author who passed away several years ago, used to call this Americanized brand of haiku by the name “lowku” and that seems perfectly fitting for Brandi’s wonderful adaptation of that traditional Japanese form. He writes: “If I’m in the right state of openness — intellect absent, the world before me as is, no hint of another to come — then poems arrive unexpectedly, as they should.” These six epiphanic poems are from Brandi’s collection Weeding the Cosmos, published by La Alameda Press. The poems are used with the author’s permission.

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The latest copy of the Reader

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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