Author's Note

Driving back from a party late at night and my slight astigmatism causing the other vehicle’s lights to seem like halos, my mind went straight to stars, their beauty, and the kernel of the idea that the terrestrial mirrors the heavens, but does so imperfectly; an example being man’s many, many city lights which must seem like a lame imitation of stars from above1. The first poem “Tower of Babel” is a start on that kernel, the other haiku are unrelated but a result of 3am poetry thinking. Why haiku2? I enjoy structure and haikus have a well-defined structure, I hardly need to squint to figure out why. That said, these haiku do not really have nature as their focus.

Tower of Babel

Attempts still thwarted;

The resplendence of heaven;

Duly left unmatched.

My interpretation here of the tower of babel is different to what’s usually discussed, i.e the usual case for unity and the sin of pride. My interpretation gets at man’s weakhearted attempts to match the resplendence of heaven. Weakhearted because of God’s active thwarting and man’s own subconscious need not to surpass in beauty that which they turn to for inspiration and without which the human enterprise is all for naught.

Rise High

Soul yearns for sky,

Like creeping vine, smoke, and cloud.

Icarus, the Blessed.3

Lake Tahoe

Water, fresh and still.

Upon which some kayaks gather

Grateful friends chatter

Footnotes

  1. A friend and I made this same observation at the same time a few weeks ago! ↩

  2. https://poets.org/glossary/haiku ↩

  3. Not technically a haiku given that the last line has 6 rather than 5 syllables. ↩