American Haiku

Politics and pop songs and drama

All about the narrative

Who’s in it and where does it take this nation?

Everything matters.

I want to be Hercules Mulligan

And when I am down

Get the fuck back up again

And that is the narrative, the story, the truth.

Do not sweat the details--

Yours won’t be mine and, honestly,

I don’t give a rat’s ass about yours

Because none of them matter without us

And we don’t matter

Except that our stars have collided right now

And here we are

And there is a story that matters.

This is a matter of national significance:

Always, we are building a nation. Always, this is the conversation.

We are where we were three thousand years ago:

It’s about hospitality and honor:

Be kind and give everything you have

To everything you do.  

That’s Achilles.

That’s Hercules Mulligan.

That’s Barack Obama.

That is Billy Collins in Italy.

Ultimately, Billy matters.

Because he does haiku American style:

Aha.  Here.  Now.

I matter.

 

But first let me make the picture clear.

The poet does the work.

You take the drink.

And you get the fuck back up again.

Because this kind of generous American thinking

Blows open the locked doors

That limit you, reader.

Let me do the work for you, says the poet, and

You take the walk.

Except that this is really about prideful Achilles:

When I can cope with this,

I will let you know.

And then I will win your war.

Which is my war.

Which is getting the fuck back up

When you’re down.

And if you think poetry is bullshit,

Think again.

Poetry wins wars,

Even when poems are essays.

Essays are the measure of the mind.  

The measure of a nation.

They are how America does haiku.

Aha.

And fuck your seventeen syllables.