The Cracked Door – Daily Haikus
Reflections on life, the world, and society. Come explore with me.
I sit in the park
My chest still
Against the dizzying motion of life
My feet planted, clasping
Against the grass to keep still
My mind roams a thousand new worlds
Blast from the past:
I’m slow getting
What I believe, say, and do
Into harmony
I did not settle in the place
Where the sun rises slowly over the rolling waves
Where the mountains kiss the gentle mist
Where the voices chant under the rising sunI did not settle in the place
Where the cicadas cry in the forest
In unwavering melody
A premonition of the horror to comeI did not settle in the place
Where the scent of food permeates
To entice people to stop to buy
From their endless stream of motorbikes
Taking them to and froI did not settle in the place
Where others sit and drink
Each new round a toast
For a tomorrow they’d rather not seeI did not settle in the place
Where everyday I once breathed
Long sighs in my desperate attempt
To remain in old debates long settled
And follow where I did not want to goI did not settle in the place
Where everyone says hello
Excited to meet a foreigner
But never understanding meI did not settle in the place
Where I could see
The ocean and its waves,
The mountains and its mist,
Or the people and their flurry
Become the wallpaper of my life
Blast from the past:
Do more than see. Seek.
The assent to the finite.
Desire to create.
Can you ever really meet
Someone new anymore, or
Have you gotten too
Many scratches to build with
Anything like a clean slate?
Blast from the past:
You saw me as just
A part of your day. To me,
You were my day.
Every time we talk,
I feel like I can’t
Recognize who you
Once seemed to be
Blast from the past:
So many thoughts rush
Through my mind. Unsorted, yet
Each fight for my time.
All I had was white space
Flight plans
Videos made
People to meet
Just enough to
Crash and burn
Blast from the past:
In one’s inner drive
Lies social expectations,
What’s the difference?
When death comes for me,
I want to walk through that door
Brimming with the wonder
Of bride who took
The world in her arms
Blast from the past:
Stones and pottery
Once teeming with life
Now encased forever
The lights flicker in the darkness
As I gaze out the high rise window
Cars and bikes halt
On streets too narrowThey try to rush to work
Among the vast expanse
Of restaurant chains
That they can’t afford
Blast from the past:
In a new city
As the fervor of the day
Transforms into night,
I lie here remembering
That I’m just a hollow shell.
(The person who this poem is dedicated to will know who they are when they see it.)
I hope you can
Give yourself the hugs
That I could never seem to give youI hope you can
Stabilize the life
I kept moving beneath you.I hope you can build
A place for yourself
I could never create with you.I hope you can give
Yourself enough space to be
In a world trying to snuff you out.I hope you can get
The anger to keep going
Even if it’s directed at me.I hope you can continue
To fail with a courage
I will never be able to muster.I hope you can laugh
In the way that
I never seemed to understand.I hope you can have
The adventures
I never had time for.I hope you can grieve
For what could have been
So that you never accept anything lessI hope you can see
Beyond the storm
At the life you’d love to live.I hope when you remember our time together
You remember it just fondly enough to keep going
But with just enough anger at me
To try to prove me wrong.
Blast from the past:
You
Me
You and me
You and me falter
You and me falter every day
In this big world
Where so many want to
Feel larger than life
It helps to be able to
Experience the small.
Blast from the past:
Even as the most
Important person walks by
The scarecrow doesn’t budge.
Here I sit
On my way
Forever on my way
“When are you going home?”
I have no home
I have only forward
Somewhere new, somewhere new, somewhere newA new place, new culture
New questions,
New challenges,
New places to see
One after the other
Can I remember the last one
A faint memory
As I venture into the new
Blast from the past:
The forgotten fire
Took almost nothing along
The road not taken