32 HAIKU
by BILL DIMICHELE
The following haiku are a compilation of 32 poems selected from a few hundred haiku created by the late Bill DiMichele between 2015 and 2016. Bill always said the most important quality an artist can have is a good eye; to be able to see something enchanted in the mundane. This skill is evident and shines through in his haiku. They illustrate the beauty in the ordinary and the fantastical alike, and show a deep veneration of all things.
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“I went over to an old Chinese cook in the doorway of the kitchen and asked him, “Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?”
“I don’t care,” said the old cook."
(Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums)
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2
a wicker basket
and hiding at the bottom-
two strawberry leaves
3
sarcophagus lid
sinks low above the treetops
wash it down with beer
4
sitting at pier 9
white city, misty morning
seagulls dive for crabs
5
her eyes will twinkle
be still or be disfigured
an unfinished doll
6
warm cup of cocoa
and for the perfect contrast
body facing death
7
late summer drowses
a country cemetery
gravestones forgotten
8
hummingbirds like harps
nearly weightless, wrapped in light
they’re drunk all the time
9
moss rock wall
lizards do a mating dance
under the birdhouse
10
ocean and mountains
cali morning, star jasmine
mexican breakfast
11
when there is silence
when the stars have come around
when peaches ripen
12
dusty clocks ticking
a dark house facing the sea
splinter of a moon
14
tangerine fire
from the top of crow canyon
we watch the sunset
15
painted sails flutter
she looks down to the harbor
blinking in her robes
16
when the first snow falls
it’s like an eternity
white on white on white
21
sit on the roadside
eat apple pie and ice cream
route 4 to denver
22
i was born and died
in the american night
cornfields and small towns
24
monongahela
hot air, sweat and humid river,
that slow brown workhorse
28
colorful crayons
fuchsia magenta lemon
spread across the floor
36
the fiddle music
carries it to my window
the smell of cut hay
38
hot tea with jelly
noisy crumbs under the knife
my glasses fog up
41
bring me a blanket
we’ll watch the heavens dancing
with millions of stars
42
two stars revolving
a candle in the lantern
honeymoon whispers
43
above is below
pink crest, purple trough ripples
waves on the ocean
61
from the parapet
dim light of cadmium red
heaven rests the dead
63
hot cinders smoking
here in the land of the dead
none of the keys fit
96
Time is short, he knows,
My father reaches to me,
I touch his tattoo.
97
Butterfly nectar
White crane in flowered garden
Lilies don’t bother.
100
Afternoon sun glares
Purple is a cool color
There is no purple.
105
After the rainstorm
Blue skies and birds are released
Drops still hang from trees.
106
October grape vines
Knowing the melancholy-
Yes, I will drink you.
107
Funeral winter
The old man in the distance
Crunches through the frost.
112
Fallen from the sky
And into her red mitten
The visiting moon.
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Some of these haiku were featured in the “Haiku Journal” and “Now” edited by Bill, which was a special one-time only edition of the “Tip of The Knife Visual Poetry Magazine” (link below) devoted to haiku (link below).
http://tipoftheknife.blogspot.com/
https://now-haiku.blogspot.com/2016/06/now-haiku-magazine.html
facqueuesol would like to thank Julie & Will DiMichele for making this tribute possible.
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© Bill DiMichele 2016/2021
a facqueuesol paperless book