HAIKU MISC

Some towns are best viewed
In luminous retrospect
Having grown up there

A turd is ugly
No way to pretty it up
Some things are like that

Ravel's Bolero
Smooth operator's version
Seduction music

Now that you're retired
What's to do to fill the days?
Well, you make things fit

Man needs a woman
Telling him he's her hero
Not a nincompoop

The person who writes
Is not the who you are, but
The one that might be

Onomodopy:
It sounds like what it's being
Broadcasting pictures

Life's a vacation
Away from what passes for death
When bodies wear out

When's the time to live
If you don't believe in God
Or Heaven? It's now

Life's a bit of fun
Heaven's long on promises
Hell? Let's don't go there

Look at what's coming
Death is a life after all
So don't ignore it

Listen to Mahler
Take a stroll on a green screen
Fill in your own scene

Demagogue wanted
To take over OWS
"Communicator"

I'm saving the world
Trouble is, most people just
Ain't interested

You got leftovers?
Save 'em, make 'em into bread
Then that's all you eat

Henry

See "More of this and that, mostly that, actually..."

THE PORT WHITMAN TIMES

HAIKU by HENRY

Straight up bebop jazz:
Cotton Candy for the ear
Pure ephemera

Composing music:
Write what e'er occurs to you
Tunes snatched from the air

Purged of life itself
Coming down to the end now
No bridge left unburned

Death comes tomorrow...
What will you have left behind?
Something substantial?

Playing piano:
Master the "thumb-under" move
Along with triads

In my dreamland I'm
A pianist and composer
Inventing new tunes

Some night I'll decide
I'm gonna stay in dream land
Bridge to the next life

To live in dreamland
Permanently is my wish
Finally achieved

If I had my choice
Here is how I'd like to die:
Go. Sleep. Don't wake up.

Did a bunch of stuff
I had no business doing
But it was there, so...

A new way to learn
How to play the piano:
Chords, not scales, to start

Not a follower
Nor inclined to leadership
Just want to be me

Here's the idea.
Just create the dialogue.
(Shouldn't be too hard)

Coupla characters
A one-act play, maybe more
Controversial though...

God creates the souls
Men and women make babies
Not at the same rate

More babies than souls
Thus our essences return
Time and time again

After each demise
Heaven's gate requires a choice:
Go in or go back

Each time St. Peter
Explains the alternatives
To new arrivals

The Lord's gatekeeper,
Helps each candidate's spirit
Make the decision

Retire to Heaven
Or wait in purgatory
For the next body

The choice is random
Or go to the end of the line
How democratic

Take a body here
Reincarnation bingo
To go live a life

You think you'd recall
Having existed before,
Ain't gonna happen

But talents survive
Make transitions to the new
Unaware of death

"Think outside the box"
Don't fear exploring unknowns
"Walk on the Wild Side!"

Play a three-note chord:
Three white keys each separate
By a single note

Improvise a tune
To the harmony you'll make
With the three-note chord

Only use white keys
At first to learn mo' better
Play a well-known song

"Hey diddle-dee-dee"
It's a doctor's life for me
Healing the body

Outlaw lobbying!
Take the money interests
Out of Washington!

Ban the Lobbyists!
Their money is ruining
The United States

The Jazz Band players
From the Darktown Strutters Hall
Made it all special

"Occupy Wall Street"
Figure things out now
The way they might be better

For Some, things couldn't get better
For others
They couldn't be worse.

Modern Confucius
Is what I'm aiming to be
Making sense today

I think extra-box...
Forbidden contemplations
...See if there's logic

...Educational
Playing in between the notes
Where the wild tones lurk

"OWS!" "OWS!"
A blog now to save us all
From ruin at the hands of Money

Please, not to worry;
I'll be back, and when I come
You'll recognize me

Henry

See "More of this and that, mostly that, actually..."

THE PORT WHITMAN TIMES

HAIKUDRAMA

Haikus by Henry
Just click on the link below
(Mouse-click Imagery)

Artistic people
That's what the Francisco's are
No escaping it.

Never serious
About anything in life
Except performing

We are but artists
Who don't compete, yea, we invent
Thus the world sees

Her father's talent
Coupled to mother's morals
Success is assured

Think in your medium
Form what you want to express
Make it so we feel

Why do you want "Friends?"
Only a waste of your time
If you're an artist

Learn to dig yourself
There's more there that meets the mind
Nuggets of pure gold

Feel the need to talk?
Speak to yourself. After all,
You've something to say

Hooked on "feeling good,"
But the older you get
Fewer are the ways

Two exclusive things:
Where you are, and where you're at
So how about you?

You're an old man now
Stop trying to rescue yourself
You're already saved

Stay right there Henry
You've got where you want to go
Develop that thing

Where does the time go
When you're havin' all that fun?
To posterity

Songs about money
Now you have it now you don't
Denominators

Here's a new riffle:
Noontime piano at the bank
(Happy money tunes)

"The financial blues
Disappear at PNC
Celebrate your dough"

In the actor's mind
Stardom is the goal somehow
Good, bad, no matter

I know how he felt
John Wilkes Booth, that assassin
No one would listen

No one would watch him
Do Hamlet or Richard III
So he shot Lincoln

Make friends with the bugs
It's they who will devour you
As their final meal

Government needs dough?
Why not tax the Internet:
Emails that we read

If System X is
As far as you want to go,
Does your stuff? Keep it.

Running from the past
Can't be such a bad idea
Keeps you in good shape

"Give your mind over"
A form of insanity:
Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's may not
Be too bad. You'll remember
A bunch of NEW things

FLASH! to Mike Henry:
The neighborhood talent show
Cleveland and his friends

You get a chance to
Show off the whole neighborhood
Getting up on stage

Tell a tale 'bout you
Something you did that made me
Love you even more

He sang boy to boy
Love songs, as Cole Porter would
And he meant them too

Sang in a gay bar
Tell me, are there still gay bars?
I've lost touch, it seems

Exponentially
You can be cyber-famous
Rapid expansion

Ideas are catching
Their contagion quite rampant
Good ones OR bad ones

But will they catch on?
Against inoculations
By their opponents

Tell you a story
It kinda jumps around
It's all in Haiku

I want to write it
Before I forget it all
The way it happened

So I'll tell you things
Just as I remember them
From my pinnacle

It is all in there
The Port Whitman Times dot com
Blogspot Daily Realm

Give me a forum
Where I can express my thoughts
And I'll change your mind

Marijuana's charge:
It makes you think that you are
More of what you are

Shave and a haircut
Luxuries of days gone by
Yet not forgotten

Charlene sure could dance
But she was a big girl, see?
So she sorta "cruised."

In rhythm, mind you
Smooth, coming in to the dock
Rhythmic motorboat

No, not Italian
The Franciscos have been here
Before Jeffersons

Temptations to do
Outweigh those to read about
Till doing is o'er

Blizzard! From inside...
The image of our front door
Top to bottom snow

Have you ever read
Anything I wrote, or heard
Music that I played?

Winter is comin'
Keep your feet warm, your neck too
Ward off sickness

Father, I have sins
Too numerous to mention
Please forgive them all

When someone dies young
Somehow he stays forever
That age in our minds

In The Poet's Mind
Ev'rything becomes Haiku
Singularly plain

In my oddball way
I long to be relevant
To mean something more

Music takes you back
To places you might not want
Ever to return

Want to be happy?
Be able to get into
Whatever you do.

You can be happy
Just don't court money or fame
Enjoy what you do

Chords are merriment
Really int'resting puzzles
You solve in your ear

Chords: merry notions
Interesting enigmas
You solve in your ear

We know how he died
But lo, what was he thinking
As he passed away?

You got leftovers?
Save 'em, make 'em into bread
Then that's all you eat..

"I've decided that
I'm going to be insane"
Speaketh the shirker

"Fuck the whole damn world
Nobody understands me!"
So saith the fool

Do insane people
Decide to go 'round the bend?
Do they make a choice?

Ev'rything's reduced
To Haiku, in precisely
One idea per

Haiku Universe
Comprised of new ideas
Expressed in verse

To play the piano:
The "thumb-under" maneuver
Along with triads

School defies PC
Political Correctness
Swims against the tide

Life's a controlled mess
Like bricklaying: mortar, block,
Formed into buildings

After you build it
Step back, appreciate it
You fade away, die.

One can but wonder
At all of Hitler's power
How it went so wrong

Somehow stay playful
And your youth is well-assured.
It's all "attitude."

Whorehouse pianist
Played tunes for getting it on
Picking one's pleasures

Henry Francisco
More at The Port Whitman Times

STILL MORE HAIKU

That we all would be
Someone's favorite something,
Remembered as such...

Surely to be wished
But it's mighty elusive
Mem'ry's Hall of Fame

Whose fav'rites are we?
Or have we seen the death of
(I should say passing)

"Favorite-ism"
Replaced by that old standard
Popularity?

I s'pose that's "High School"
Yet, that's how we live again
Recalling good years,

Best times traded for
Whatever was to follow,
If and when it came.

Thus we are here now
Casting our teacher in mind
Ah! There! Up ahead...

He goes; knows the way
As he did those years ago
Our English guru.

Yea his spirit lives
In our imaginations
He sparked 'way back then.

So, we'll get there too:
Class reunions in ether -
"The Bells" ring again...

Running from the past
Can't be such a bad idea
Keeps you in good shape

"Give your mind over"
A form of insanity:
Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's may not
Be too bad. You'll remember
A bunch of NEW things

FLASH! to Mike Henry:
The neighborhood talent show
Cleveland and his friends

You get a chance to
Show off the whole neighborhood
Getting up on stage

Tell a tale 'bout you
Something you did that made me
Love you even more

He sang boy to boy
Love songs, as Cole Porter would
And he meant them too

He sang it in a gay bar
Tell me, are there still gay bars?
I've lost touch, it seems

Exponentially
Become famous on the 'net
Rapid expansion

Ideas are catching
Their contagion quite rampant
Good ones OR bad ones

But will they catch on?
Against inoculations
By their opponents

Tell you a story
It kinda jumps around
It's all in Haiku

I want to write it
Before I forget it all
The way it happened

So I'll tell you things
Just as I remember them
From my pinnacle

It is all in there
The Port Whitman Times dot com
Blogspot Daily Realm

Give me a forum
Where I can express my thoughts
And I'll change your mind

Marijuana's charge:
It makes you think that you are
More of what you are

Shave and a haircut
Luxuries of days gone by
Yet not forgotten

Charlene sure could dance
But she was a big girl, see?
So she sorta "cruised."

In rhythm, mind you
Smooth, coming in to the dock
A real motorboat

No, not Italian
The Franciscos have been here
Before Jeffersons

Temptations to do
Outweigh those to read about
Till doing is done

After a blizzard
The image of our front door
Top to bottom snow

Have you ever read
Anything I wrote, or heard
Music that I played?

Winter is comin'
Keep your feet warm, your neck too
Ward off sickness

Father, I have sins
Too numerous to mention
Please forgive them all

Henry Francisco
More at The Port Whitman Times

HAIKU OR BUST!

Enjoy what you got
Don't worry 'bout what you ain't*
*Key to happy life

Do what you can do
Avoid the things that you can't
(Only so much time...)

Dregs of life remain
To be consumed with gusto
Till they're all used up

When it's time to die
Move on. Another life waits
Yearning to be lived.

As the years pass by
We search for some relevance
Keeping up the fight

Artistic talent
Warrior mentality
Need them both. Too bad.

A life in Haiku
In seventeen syllables
Snapshots of a time

In Haiku-gawa
Everyone speaks only
Lyrical Language

It's not the doing,
What's important is the myth
Of the enjoyment

A young man, I sang
"Ma, he's making eyes at me"
In gay cabarets

Storms of life o'er time
Raindrops racing down windows
Inconsequential

In a dream I play
The piano at the bank
Moolah serenades

Haunted by mem'ries
I wend my way to dreamland
Behold new visions!

Who needs memory?
Now we have hard drives, thumb drives
To store our thinking

Think with the rhythm
Ravings of a lunatic
Predict the future

I just pretended
To have Alzheimer's Disease
"I don't know nuthin'"

I just didn't want
To converse with anyone
In the time I had

Exercise guru:
He's ninety seven years old
Doin' funky moves

The ultimate drug
But only while you taste it
A Henry's Ice Cream

Haikus by Henry
Just click on the link below
(Mouse-click Imagery)

Henry Francisco
More at The Port Whitman Times

HEALTH CARE LIMITS

The problem is that nobody has any control over the HealthCare Industry. Not the government, surely not the sick who need it, not the Insurance Industry because they're PART of the HealthCare Industry. So the providers, the docs, the hospitals, the drug companies, all the servicers, are free to charge, in that old Wharton School adage "What the traffic will bear." And when you're sick, guess what - They gotcha. You'll do just about anything - ANYTHING - to get better, if that is a possibility, OR to bear pleasantly the illness that kills you.

If there were Government Universal HealthCare Insurance, competition would exist. Private employers, local and state governments, the federal government, wouldn't have to carry insurance for their workers with private companies; soon, Government would be, if not the ONLY provider, at least a competitor in the market. Ah, Free Coverage - an incentive to stay healthy because the Universal policy covering just basic stuff would be the policy of choice over the bloated policies of private insurers. Not a hard choice.

Think: HealthCare for free. Especially if you STAY healthy by eating right, staying in shape, exercising regularly. Because with an unhealthy lifestyle, you're gonna want that private cadillac coverage, because you're gonna NEED it, and you're gonna PAY bigtime.

So "To pay or not to pay" - That is the question. You'll pay less if it's Universal.

Henry Francisco
More at The Port Whitman Times

HAIKU THOUGHTS 09062011

Artistic people
That's what the Francisco's are
No escaping it.

Never serious
About anything in life
Except performing

We are but artists
Who don't compete, yea, we invent
Thus the world sees

Her father's talent
Coupled to mother's morals
Success is assured

Think in your medium
Form what you want to express
Make it so we feel

Why do you want "Friends?"
Only a waste of your time
If you're an artist

Learn to dig yourself
There's more there that meets the mind
Nuggets of pure gold

Feel the need to talk?
Speak to yourself. After all,
You've something to say

Hooked on "feeling good,"
But the older you get
Fewer are the ways

Two exclusive things:
Where you are, and where you're at
So how about you?

You're an old man now
Stop trying to rescue yourself
You're already saved

Stay right there Henry
You've got where you want to go
Develop that thing

Where does the time go
When you're havin' all that fun?
To posterity

Songs about money
Now you have it now you don't
Denominators

Here's a new riffle:
Noontime piano at the bank
(Happy money tunes)

"The financial blues
Disappear at PNC
Celebrate your dough"

In the actor's mind
Stardom is the goal somehow
Good, bad, no matter

I know how he felt
John Wilkes Booth, that assassin
No one would listen

No one would watch him
Do Hamlet or Richard III
So he shot Lincoln

Make friends with the bugs
It's they who will devour you
As their final meal

Government needs dough?
Why not tax the Internet:
Emails that we read

If System X is
As far as you want to go,
Does your stuff? Keep it.

Henry Francisco
More at The Port Whitman Times