All haiku © 2017 Richard Jonathan. All rights reserved.
Paul Klee, Winter Picture, 1930
Parakeets gaggle,
The cock treads the hen. I scream:
His heat sears my heart
The night’s sleight of hand,
Stars: The sparkle in your eyes,
That alone is real
Stars drowned in daylight:
Nobody knows, only I,
You are with me now
Black night, empty sky;
Stars’ hidden presence: Your touch
In my memory
A riot of stars
Crowds the sky: Through wet eyelashes,
Your face in my mind
So distant, so close.
Thanks, praise, forgiveness: Like you,
Stars make me religious
Raindrops, window pane.
A breath blows: To the river
They run together.
Dreamfall, the dagger
Between your teeth: Fervent,
The rose flaunts its thorns
Deathwatch, when freedom
Is vertiginous: Violin,
Knife, spear and arrow
Nightworld, the black art
Of sound’s speculum: Auditive light
In the eye of the heart
Starlight! Out of the rose,
Cold brilliance takes the spectre:
You give it back the ghost
Swaying cypresses,
Wine, roses, nightingales: No.
Just the essence of you
And how it moves me!
Marietta, the turning world stops
When you touch me
Your diamond-dust shoes—
Hand them down to me, big sister:
I’ll be your bridesmaid
Hands cupped around heart,
Protecting the inner flame:
Could fists have done the same?
Blood of the impure:
Everywhere an alien
At home nowhere
Transparent zombie
Nobody sees you: Except
The loving ancients
Blood of the impure:
Can one who does not belong
Be loved? Turn the page.
Thoroughbred beauty:
In your fearful symmetry
Blake’s tiger abides
Paralyzed, frozen,
Numb: To the last redoubt
I retreated, dumb
Enough! The horror
Of being incomprehensible:
Love me till I’m intelligible
Sister of mercy,
See beyond my tears: See into
The wasteland inside me
By what miracle
Have you come into my life?
Resuscitation
Lady, do not rise
Till Lazarus has bestowed
His blessing: A kiss
Algae bloom
In spring frost: A hint of green
In your fingernail gloss.
In wisps of blonde
Earrings sway: From the treadmill of events
Time breaks away.
Hatched, the egg of night;
Black thoughts, brooding monsters:
Fascination
Summer’s over,
The beach deserted: Your hand in mine
Knows no season.
Blue gloss
On toenails: Blue note
In my heart
Skin aglow,
The kingdom; eyes in the know:
Wisdom
Sway of breasts,
Slope of shoulder: The flame,
The candle, the holder
Fall of hair, lake through leaves:
Sifting what she knows
From what she believes
Sweat on skin, gleaming;
Hair a wheat field after a storm:
I want you again
Earth, sky, underworld:
Through the realms she weaves me,
My plumed serpent
The tremble of lust,
Gold leaf on squirrel brush:
My lips on your lips
You got me rocking,
Leporida: You got me
Cooking, cottontail
If she were to bite
I’d join the undead: The life
Of all flesh is blood
But I am already
Bitten: Returned in body
She is you again
Touch me, fatal sister.
Come, possess and destroy me:
Infect me with love.
Bite me, pollute me,
Mingle your blood with mine:
Take the stone from my mouth.
Bending a piece of driftwood,
You bend destiny to your desire:
Isn’t that what vast horizons are for?
Heavenward, you launch
Your thanks and praise: Joy overcomes
Creatureliness
Land, sea and sky,
One unbounded plain: As boundless
As my love for you
Blowing your hair, the wind
Hides your face: Into the open
My ardour is driven
Parted, poised to spread,
Your lips pause: The eternal
In the instant
Tilted head, tight frame;
Fortuity: Whole is your beauty
In half a face
Shock of recognition:
Through the lens I see it is you
Who are looking at me
Offering what it withholds,
Furtive yet forthright: Your face
In its inner light
Body in flight,
Silhouette afloat: Grace
Makes gravity luminous
In tall grass we crouch.
Three, two, one, click! A portrait
Of Cathy and Heathcliff
You slip a violet
Into the folds of my dream:
Aflutter, I find it
Vertigo, recall—
Your prophetic dignity:
You are leaving me
Blue shadow, metallic sheen;
Edged in brown, a hard outline:
In your eyes I am the fire.
Redefined, darkened,
Arched and tapered out:
In your brows I am the arrow.
Cupid’s bow, mahogany;
The light that lives in darkness:
In your breath I am the spark.