Up in Haiku Broadside
Up in HaikuUp in Haiku they got a snow machine, a cherry blossom picker,
weather, adorable insects, pine forests, & a little Time:
so small it's just beyond our jurisdiction,
so infinitesimal it's subject to discussion.
Mt Talkintooya is a relaxed afternoon's walk from downtown
along streets bordered -- shadowed -- by oaks & bushy palms.
There Mia Casa lived. Sort of a monk in a friendly hat,
some habits, no badge. We, most of us, kind of admired that,
the way you'd admire a small plant before you sat beside it.
Mia Casa said, "I think modern methods of acknowledgment
are creepy, frankly, thusly I merely nod at Who-I-Do-Not-Know I keep to myself.
& when I suffer constipation & / or rue
I attend to the writings of my superiors, all 2,
both entirely dead & oblivious to What's New."
Mia Casa said, "If I smoke your cigarette you must smoke mine."
Meaning, Knowledge is transferable. Meaning, Find it in your heart.
Meaning, How about circuitous discourse as a way of talk.
I loved Mia Casa -- dumb, inscrutable, obvious, wrong,
I think he muttered whatever came to mind,
as good as it got. & his cool monk's cap. & the altogether
pleasant walk up Talkintooya. & the tiny lavish weather of Haiku.
Meaning, How do you do, 17 syllables, mention something Now.
Meaning, I cannot escape to paradise or entirely live here but wow!
-Jon Anderson
originally published in Day Moon from Carnegie Mellon University Press. 2001
