07/07/25 A New Kwansaba for a New Day

Photo Credit: Andrik Langfield

-for my ex-girlfriend

we set off united with joyful hearts
though we ended up having to part
i still cherish my time with you
writing silly stories, hiking through distant lands
you’ll always have a place in my story
for pushing me out of my rut
hope you say the same about me

We recently broke up, and I used the kwansaba format to reflect on this. It’s 7 lines, with seven words per line, where each word must be less than seven letters. Evidently, they are intended as a praise poem, mostly to celebrate family and African-American, although in this case, I took a slightly looser interpretation of that part. A girlfriend can count as family though.

Blast from the Past:

I feel like this would
Be easier if I could
Simply despise you

07/03/25 A New Haiku a New Day

Photo Credit: Paul Stollery

Don’t have to do much
For a cat to be willing
To jump on you lap

(And then immediately jump right back off.)

Blast from the Past:

The cat naps content
Knowing that she will have food
When she is ready.

04/23/25 A New Poem for a New Day

Photo Credit: DIEU

Show me your tears
And I will show you how I can cry with you.

Show me your anger
And I will help you flip tables.

Show me your joy
And I will show you how I can smile with you

Show me your fear
And I will show you how I try to convince myself that I am secure

Sing me your song
And I will provide its darker melody

Show me your dance
And I will make you look even more elegant as I stumble along with you

Show me your grief,
And I will ponder what was lost with you

Show me your hopes and dreams,
And I will bask in their glory with you

Show me your worries,
And I will tell you which ones scare me too

Show me your mind,
And I will run mental loops around you until we are both confused

Show me your love,
And I will counter it with my own

Lean on me,
And I will show you how to lean on no one else ever again

Blast from the Past:

Would you still love me
If the sun dies out and our
Corpses are frozen?

02/19/25 A New Haiku for A New Day

Photo Credit: Lucas Lenzi

Life is growth, so if
We’re not growing together,
We’re growing apart

Blast from the Past:

Grow what is working,
And then improve what is not.
Iterative process.

02/15/25 A New Haiku for the Day

Photo Credit: Jeremy Bishop

Love is life itself
Beauty is what love produces
Harmony is love’s process*

Blast from the Past:

Loved by a dog in
A concentration camp.
It saw my humanity
That other people could not.

*Based on the philosophy/theology of Inayat Khan (see https://youtu.be/lal6rf5HhiY?si=2JxjAJcy5lpkcReh)