Category Archives: Honorable mentions

Tributes to musicians and other artists — even a few politicians

Wonder-ful haiku

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May 13th was Stevie Wonder’s birthday. From this time last year.

A day of Wonder
May 13th, 1950,
Little Stevie’s born

“Fingertips (Pt. 2)”
Announced a new star with “Let’s
“Hear it for the boy!”

Yes, everything was
All right, uptight, outta sight;
Pop hits all could love

Signed, sealed, delivered
He was our soul man; how could
Anyone top that?

But top it he did
Great album after album
Flawless vinyl gems

His inner visions
Turned into sonic landscapes
You could hear, touch, feel

He boogied on, loved
A baby girl’s loveliness,
Ripped politicians

“Superstition”: Now
That’s an intro, and I bet
You’re hearing it now

Pleasures of the flesh,
Longings of the soul, his songs
Made it all so real

Eyes that cannot see
A heart that sees everything
The gift of Wonder

Mother’s Day, 2012, haiku

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If a bar band can’t go wrong playing Beatles songs, I guess a poem can’t be too bad if it’s about Mom. To Tina, the mother of our two very lucky children. (Though for her, somehow, the gray hair and wrinkles haven’t showed up.)

She waits, globe belly
A whole other world within
About to be born

She stoops, back aching
Two small arms circle her neck
Tiny kisses heal

She reads, lids heavy
Prays blessed slumber comes first
To her little ones

She drives, endless miles
Bouncing balls, musical notes
Practice makes better

She worries, they grow
In mind and body. But will
Love, wisdom follow?

She grays, and wrinkles
They walk up aisles, diplomas
Down aisles, rings and vows

She smiles, now she knows
They’ll still fall, but they’ll get up
For she showed them how

She’ll love, forever
Even after she is gone.
No other. Mother.

And last year’s Mother’s Day batch is here.

“Wild things” haiku

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Maurice Sendak, June 10, 1928 — May 8, 2012

‘Bye, Maurice Sendak
You showed us we would conquer
Though there be monsters

Harry Truman, May 8, 1884 — Dec. 26, 1972
VE Day, May 8, 1945

Give ’em hell, Harry
Wish you were still in D.C.
To straighten things out

Plain spoken and tough,
Hard working and ornery.
Independence, man

The Nazis gave up
On your 61st birthday
You brought our boys home

And you took the heat
Whatever life brought your way
Give ’em hell, Harry!

“Art break” haiku for Keith Haring

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Keith Haring, May 4, 1958 — Feb. 16, 1990

Google “Keith Haring”
Google anything today
And check out his art

That’s right, he’s the dude
And doodler extraordinaire
Whose lines burst with life

Inspired by Disney
And Seuss, no wonder his work’s
So vibrant, direct

Subway chalk drawings,
NYC, drew attention,
Seat on train to fame

“Radiant Baby”
Showed simplicity’s power
Lines, colors, and shapes

Circle expanded
Warhol, Grace Jones, Madonna,
Basquiat, Burroughs

But he stayed focused,
Helped causes, made public art
People could enjoy

He got HIV
Joined efforts to fight AIDS, but
HIV got him

So young to leave us
But true pictures do not die
Radiant baby

“Scream and shout” haiku

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“The Scream” sells at auction for record $120 million.

I scream you scream we
All scream: Who in the world paid
That much for “The Scream”?

James Brown, May 3, ’33 — Christmas, ’06

BD of JB
And Soul Brother No. 1
Liked to celebrate

Came up the hard way
Picked cotton, scrounged coal, danced, sang
Did hard time for theft

Then he showed the way
Mixing rock, funk, soul and rap
Before we said “rap”

James Brown poured it on
For “Live at the Apollo”
An all-time classic

Hardest working man
In show business always gave
100%

So get your hot pants
Pop up some mother popcorn
Start the sex machine

Please please please, JB
And thanks thanks thanks for makin’
Us shout “I feel good”

“Requiem for a heavyweight” haiku

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Walt Bodine’s last show is today on KCUR, 10-11 a.m.

It’s been a great ride
For our city’s talk show king
Walt ruled for decades

From his dad’s drugstore
To his KCUR mic
Memories galore

Linwood and Troost was
Crossroads of Kansas City
— And America

As a soda jerk
Walt soaked it all up — asking,
Telling, retelling

This city became
Part of Walt Bodine, and he
A big part of it

Walt found his calling
Behind a radio mic
First in Sedalia

Next came Atchison
Then WDAF
Other KC jobs

1983
KCUR called, and Walt
Had found his last gig

The talk of the town
Whoever and whatever
Walt had on his show

Movies and restaurants
Politics, history, gossip
Walt served it all up

Walt’s been fading, true,
For some years now. Still I’ll miss
That voice of our town

World heavyweight champ
Rocky Marciano called
It quits on this date

Walt Bodine signs off
On this date, too. There are no
Coincidences

A nice look at Walt’s career is here.

Haiku trumpeting Gideon

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Gideon Sundbäck, April 24, 1880 – June 21, 1954

Google puts some zip
Into its homepage, recalls
Gideon Sundbäck

Swede moved to U.S.
Universal Fastener
Lured him from GE

Engineer devised
The modern zipper, replaced
Hook and eye design

Dimple-bottomed teeth
With conical projections,
Slider — sounds kinky

Hookless Fastener
Number 1 worked pretty well
Number 2 worked great

Necessity called
Sundback invented machine
To make zippers, too

But B.F. Goodrich
Came up with the name “zipper”
Used it on its boots

Garment makers slow
To adopt, years before it
Was done on the fly

Eventually
Zippers found their opening
Ruled the clothing world

Kids, randy grownups
Still love to play with zippers
So thanks, birthday boy

Could go on all day
But to honor Sundbäck’s work
I’d better zip it

“Record Store Day” haiku; LeRoi haiku, redux

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It’s Record Store Day! Here are a few haiku from this time last year:

It’s Record Store Day
KC’s Vinyl Renaissance
It’s all in the groove

The Tao of Vinyl:
The hole contains all music
Not on the platter

Good Vinyl Karma:
What goes around comes around
Again and again

All the best vinyl
Is revolutionary
But what RPM?

AND a big batch from last Nov. 19th, with was the 52nd anniversary of Kief’s in Lawrence, the record store I haunted in my youth, is here.

AND last year we got the sad, sad news that Leroy (LeRoi) Johnson had died. After college, when I got a job in KC and moved here, LeRoi was THE “record store guy.” Some farewell haiku from last Aug. 30:

LeRoi, it can’t be
You’re gone — I thought the music
Would play forever

King of record stores
On Main Street and then Westport
Never missed a groove

Rotund and ruddy
Ever-present cigarette
You were always there

Wrote same Pitch review
A thousand times, “Cool! Buy it!”
Of course, you were right

Feel strange disturbance
In the Force, as turntables
Cry out, fall silent

American icon haiku

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Drape Bandstand in black
Then keep on rockin’ — Dick Clark
Would want it that way

Count on his countdown
Each year the ball dropped, but he
Never dropped the ball

Haiku with the fishes

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Deep beneath the sea
Across 100 years’ time
Tragedy echoes

Luxury, hubris
Trapped in their lovers’ embrace
Of endless rust, rot

Unsinkable ships,
Banks too big to fail tell us
We learn, then forget