3.5.2022 – watching ukraine war

watching ukraine war
watching and waiting for what …
for that shoe to drop

Me and my brother Pete were just over a year apart in age.

We were brothers.

We fought a lot.

And often.

There is a famous scene in our childhood when my future sister-in-law, Judy Beach was visiting us.

Judy had grown up in a nice, calm family with one brother.

She dated my brother Paul who was and is a nice, calm guy.

I suspect Judy was surprised if maybe not overwhelmed when she was at our house ‘to meet the family’ and me and Pete got into it, MMA style.

It wasn’t until we were a little older when we got into Junior High that we learned about wrestling and trying to use our weight (which neither had very much of) to hold the other down.

Nope.

This was brawling.

This was we-watched-them-do-this-on-tv cowboy in the saloon bar fights.

This was Three Stooges, sitting-on-you-while-trying to bash-your-head-through-the-floor slugfests.

We swung and kicked and bit as best we could.

Screaming all the time.

And no one paid much attention to us.

But it caught Judy’s attention and she was distraught and anxiety gnawed at her.

Was no one going to say anything?

Was no one going to stop this?

I was 9 and Pete was 8.

After a while, my Mom took notice.

“Stop it, stop it, stop it.” said Mom.

Judy later told how relived she was that finally this was over.

She felt she could breathe again.

Then my Mom said, “Give me your glasses.”

Pete and I both wore glasses that got broke often.

We took them off and gave them to Mom who put them on the kitchen counter.

“Okay, get it over with,” she said as she turned back to Judy and we got back to brawling.

It must have been something to see.

I remember another time one of these fights took place in front of my Grandfather.

He stood over saying, “Here here, here here.”

Which struck both me and Pete so funny that we stopped fighting just to laugh.

For a long time we could make the other laugh in church by leaning over and whispering, “Here here.”

SO we watch the war in Ukraine.

The world stands by and says, “Here here, here here.”

The world stands by and says, “Now stop that.”

The world stands by and says, “Now look out for that nuclear power plant.”

We know we aren’t going to do anything.

They know we aren’t going to do anything.

Well, we are going to cut off their allowance if they don’t stop.

What to do?

What can you do?

So we wait for this war to be over.

Though I am not sure what over means.

I think I want Mr. Putin to come to his senses and say, “My bad – So sorry – We are leaving.”

I also want a million dollars (tax free).

I know Mr. Putin is not going to come to his senses.

Mr. Putin wants to make Russia great again.

So what do I want?

Let’s go the movies.

Do I want to be Richard Blaine?

Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca and get back into the fight, a fight I know this time our side will win?

Do I want to be Sam Spade?

Humphrey Bogart in Maltese Falcon and say to Putin, “I won’t play the sap for you! I won’t play the sap for you because you’ve counted on it.”

I have to admit I think a lot of problems that people have could be avoided if they had said to themselves, “I won’t play the sap for you.”

On the other hand …

It just occurred to me.

In Maltese Falcon, Bogart wears black suits.

In Casablanca, Bogart wears the white dinner jacket.

How long will it take for the shoe to drop?

Cities bombed.

People killed.

Now here here.

March Madness is about to start and we would really like to just watch it okay?

Boy I wonder who Joe Biden has in his bracket?

I think, in the end, the movie will be the old John Wayne standard, Chisum.

You know the line.

Finally John Wayne has been pushed too far and he is asked what he is going to do and John Wayne says, “What I’d have done 25 years ago.”

3.4.2022 – make definitive

make definitive
future declaration is
not dealing in facts

Once the war in Ukraine started, I often found it difficult to write a haiku on a daily basis.

To fill in those gaps, I turned to this entry, originally posted on March 6, 2022 and created several haiku to fill in gaps.

Please forgive this effort on my part to produce a daily haiku in retrograde fashion but as I like to say, my blog my rules.

Suffice it to say, this entry may not have been created on this date and this essay was not written for today but then the essay itself is somewhat timeless in its application.

Thanks

MJH

——–

Adapted from the article, The world is unpredictable and strange. Still, there is hope in the madness by Rebecca Solnit and the paragraph in particular that states:

Despair is a delusion of confidence that asserts it knows what’s coming, perhaps a tool of those who like to feel in control, even if just of the facts, when in reality, we can frame approximate parameters, but the surprises keep coming.

Anyone who makes a definitive declaration about what the future will bring is not dealing in facts.

The world we live in today was utterly unforeseen and unimaginable on many counts, the world that is coming is something we can work toward but not something we can foresee.

We need to have confidence that surprise and uncertainty are unshakable principles, if we want to have confidence in something.

And recognize that in that uncertainty is room to act, to try to shape a future that will be determined by what we do in the present.

Recognize that in that uncertainty is room to act.

I have been told that the symbol of Ukraine is the sunflower.

I find it, well, comforting, or fitting, or entirely appropriate that Vincent Van Gogh let out so much of his expression through sunflowers.

While I agree and endorse that We need to have confidence that surprise and uncertainty are unshakable principles, if we want to have confidence in something.

I agree too with the statement that the world we live in today was utterly unforeseen and unimaginable on many counts.

But I also am comforted knowing that when the when Moses came down Mt. Sinai with the 10 commandments and he wrote the the first five books of the Bible, God knew that it wouldn’t be long until I was reading those books on something called an iPhone.

3.1.2022 – frame approximate

frame approximate
parameters reality
surprise keep coming

Once the war in Ukraine started, I often found it difficult to write a haiku on a daily basis.

To fill in those gaps, I turned to this entry, originally posted on March 6, 2022 and created several haiku to fill in gaps.

Please forgive this effort on my part to produce a daily haiku in retrograde fashion but as I like to say, my blog my rules.

Suffice it to say, this entry may not have been created on this date and this essay was not written for today but then the essay itself is somewhat timeless in its application.

Thanks

MJH

——–

Adapted from the article, The world is unpredictable and strange. Still, there is hope in the madness by Rebecca Solnit and the paragraph in particular that states:

Anyone who makes a definitive declaration about what the future will bring is not dealing in facts.

The world we live in today was utterly unforeseen and unimaginable on many counts, the world that is coming is something we can work toward but not something we can foresee.

We need to have confidence that surprise and uncertainty are unshakable principles, if we want to have confidence in something.

And recognize that in that uncertainty is room to act, to try to shape a future that will be determined by what we do in the present.

Recognize that in that uncertainty is room to act.

I have been told that the symbol of Ukraine is the sunflower.

I find it, well, comforting, or fitting, or entirely appropriate that Vincent Van Gogh let out so much of his expression through sunflowers.

While I agree and endorse that We need to have confidence that surprise and uncertainty are unshakable principles, if we want to have confidence in something.

I agree too with the statement that the world we live in today was utterly unforeseen and unimaginable on many counts.

2.28.2022 – have confidence that

shape future that will
be determined by what we
do in the present

Once the war in Ukraine started, I often found it difficult to write a haiku on a daily basis.

To fill in those gaps, I turned to this entry, originally posted on March 6, 2022 and created several haiku to fill in gaps.

Please forgive this effort on my part to produce a daily haiku in retrograde fashion but as I like to say, my blog my rules.

Suffice it to say, this entry may not have been created on this date and this essay was not written for today but then the essay itself is somewhat timeless in its application.

Thanks

MJH

——–

Adapted from the article, The world is unpredictable and strange. Still, there is hope in the madness by Rebecca Solnit and the paragraph in particular that states:

Anyone who makes a definitive declaration about what the future will bring is not dealing in facts.

The world we live in today was utterly unforeseen and unimaginable on many counts, the world that is coming is something we can work toward but not something we can foresee.

We need to have confidence that surprise and uncertainty are unshakable principles, if we want to have confidence in something.

And recognize that in that uncertainty is room to act, to try to shape a future that will be determined by what we do in the present.

Recognize that in that uncertainty is room to act.

I have been told that the symbol of Ukraine is the sunflower.

I find it, well, comforting, or fitting, or entirely appropriate that Vincent Van Gogh let out so much of his expression through sunflowers.

While I agree and endorse that We need to have confidence that surprise and uncertainty are unshakable principles, if we want to have confidence in something.

I agree too with the statement that the world we live in today was utterly unforeseen and unimaginable on many counts.

2.27.2022 – at the violet hour

at the violet hour
eyes turn upward from the desk
human engine waits

Part of the series of Haiku inspired by The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot and the article, ‘It takes your hand off the panic button’: TS Eliot’s The Waste Land 100 years on by Andrew Dickson.

Mr. Dickson asks, ‘Is it genuinely one of the greatest works in the language, or – as the poet once claimed – just “a piece of rhythmical grumbling“?’

Readers of this blog may remember that from time to time I struggle with the weight of effort of producing a daily Haiku and any thoughts I may have about the words and time that went in the Haiku that day.

This daily schedule of missing a day can bring on a personal mental paralysis wherein writing these entries becomes impossible.

I learned to deal with this by not dealing with it and let it go.

Then when I look at my register of entries and see blank days with no post, I will grab a topic or book or poem for a source and produce a series of Haiku to fill in those blank dates.

This is one of the great benefits of this effort being my blog and my blog, my rules.

It IS cricket because I say it is.

It is ‘according to Hoyle’ because I say it is.

Thus I have this series based on ‘The Wasteland.’

A thoroughly enjoyable connection of wordplay and source of endless discussion in the search for meaning.

For myself, I like that bit about a piece of rhythmical grumbling by Mr. Eliot so said Mr. Eliot.

I have remembered this story before in these posts, but it reminds me of a story told by the actor Rex Harrison.

Mr. Harrison recounted rehearsing a play by George Bernard-Shaw and that the company was having a difficult time with a certain scene when, wonder of wonder, Bernard-Shaw himself dropped by to watch rehearsal.

Mr. Harrison tells how great this was as they went to the play write and asked how did he see this scene – what was he striving for?

Bernard-Shaw asked for a script and read over the scene, read it over again and a third time, then looked up and said, “This is rather bad isn’t it.”