Posted by Cosmos’s Poems in All Poetry. Fan Story, Poetry Soup, Writing Com and Elsewhere
I have been posting poems on All Poetry, Fan Story, Poetry Soup and Writing Com, and elsewhere since 2016. I have posted over 1000 poems over the years. Many of them were inspired by All Poetry, Fan Story, Poetry Soup or Writing Com contests. I have been posting ten poems every other week since I joined. I have 600 followers and follow over 1600 other poets from around the world. I have also posted poems on Cosmos Funnel, Hello Poetry, Poetry Lore, Poem Hunter, Poetry Magnum Opus, and a few other sites and on FB poetry sites as well. I usually cross post on all these sites, reserving about half my poems as “unpublished” for publication credit.
All Poetry, Fan Story, Poetry Soup, and Writing Com are great sites to meet and read poets from everywhere. You can sign up for free, but I opted to pay for a premium membership. They also offer classes and lots of informational resources for poets. I plan on updating my web page Medium, Substack, Wattpad, Writing.Com pages, and my Spotify podcasts, whenever I post things on All Poetry, Fan Story, Poetry Soup, and Writing Com et al.
You can find my poems at https://allpoetry.com/Jake Aller. And at Cosmos poetry and fiction now on Poetry Soup.
For the rest of my work, see .
Where to Find my Work on the Web
Where to Find Cosmos’s Work on the Web updates
All Poetry Poems
Cosmos’s Poems in All Poetry. Fan Story, Poetry Soup, Writing Com and Elsewhere
I have been posting poems on All Poetry, Fan Story, Poetry Soup and Writing Com, and elsewhere since 2016. I have posted over 1000 poems over the years. Many of them were inspired by All Poetry, Fan Story, Poetry Soup or Writing Com contests. I have been posting ten poems every other week since I joined. I have 600 followers and follow over 1600 other poets from around the world. I have also posted poems on Cosmos Funnel, Hello Poetry, Poetry Lore, Poem Hunter, Poetry Magnum Opus, and a few other sites and on FB poetry sites as well. I usually cross post on all these sites, reserving about half my poems as “unpublished” for publication credit.
All Poetry, Fan Story, Poetry Soup, and Writing Com are great sites to meet and read poets from everywhere. You can sign up for free, but I opted to pay for a premium membership. They also offer classes and lots of informational resources for poets. I plan on updating my web page Medium, Substack, Wattpad, Writing.Com pages, and my Spotify podcasts, whenever I post things on All Poetry, Fan Story, Poetry Soup, and Writing Com et al.
You can find my poems at https://allpoetry.com/Jake Aller. And at Cosmos poetry and fiction now on Poetry Soup.
For the rest of my work, see .
Where to Find my Work on the Web
Where to Find Cosmos’s Work on the Web updates
Index
- Just a Halloween Nightmare
- Halloween Is Coming Too Soon
- Poisonous Junk Food Killng Us Slowly
- Ode to the Lowly Doughnut
- MAGA Neighbor Saw Me as the Devil Incarnate
- My Favorite Time Of Day
- Seeing The Taj Mahal
- Nice Weather For Ducks
- Learning He Was Jewish On Rosh Hashana
- Your Love Still Gives Me A Thrill
- Korean Winter Blues
- When I First Saw You
- Robot Lady Bug
- Sam Adams Returns To The Green Beaches Of Oregon
- Oceans Dying
- Climate Is Changing
- Evil Winds Haiku
- What Do Trees Think Of Us?
- Walking Along The Winter Korean Beach
- 11 Winter Haiflu/Senryu
- Sunsets Of Love
- The Elephant In The Room
- Contaza Love Poem
- Sam Adams Cutting Words
- What Is Love Explained To A Space Alien
- Neo-50ths Return of The Red Menace
Beginning Poems
Just a Halloween Nightmare
on Halloween
Sam Adams
went drinking
in the Cosmos Bar
In Soi Cowboy
Bangkok, Thailand
He woke up
in a dark, dangerous forest
lit by the evil full moon
creatures
out of his worst nightmares
saw him
The Chief of them all
Wears a Trumpian mask
Complete with orange hair
Half-human half pig
His deputy
Wears the face of Putin
But his body
Half-human, half-horse,
The other creatures wear masks
Many of them wear
Green Pepe the alt-right
Symbolic frog masks
And I have T-shirts
Bearing alt right slogans
And Nazi symbols
And as they prance about
They chant alt-right slogans
And neo-Nazi chants
Jews will not replace us
And the rest of these creatures
Are hideous beasts
Apes, cannibals, demons, dwarves,
Goblins, leprechauns, imps, monsters, orcs,
Pirates, satyrs, werewolves, zombies,
start chasing him
chanting
“Death to all humans
Sam Adams must die”
Just when they are about
To catch him
He wakes up
In his bed
Just another
Halloween nightmare
He concluded
Halloween is Coming Too Soon
It seems to me
That it is absurd
In the US
That COSTCO and Home Depot
Start putting out Halloween decor
In July
Christmas too
Way too soon
I say
Poisonous Junk Food Killing Us Slowly
So much of what we eat
It is not good for us
In fact
Most junk food
It is nothing but poison
Designed to be so delicious
As we eat ourselves
Into an early grave
Ode to the Lowly Doughnut
Many years ago
I used to take a coffee break
About 10 am
And had a donut and coffee
With my colleague
Sadly, being pre-diabetic
I have not eaten doughnuts in years.
MAGA Neighbor Saw Me as the Devil Incarnate
I used to have a neighbor
In Medford, Oregon
Who hated me with passion.
Because I had my Korean relatives
Staying with me and she was a hard cord
MAGA all the way Christian fundamentalist
Who no doubt saw me and my relatives
As the Devil incarnate.
My Favorite Time of Day
My favorite time
Of day
Is sunset
Cocktail hour
When I drink wine
Occasionally rum
Or whiskey
With my wife
Seeing the Taj Mahal
They say
There are two types
Of people
In this world
Those who have seen
The Taj Mahal
And those
who have not
Nice Weather for Ducks
In Seattle
During the winter it rains
The common Winter greeting
“Is nice weather
For ducks”
Who loves to play
In rainy days
Of Seattle’s winter
Learning He Was Jewish on Rosh Hashana
Sam Adams found out
Via DNA testing
On Rosh Hashanah
He was part Jewish.
That he indeed
was part Jewish.
10%
according to the DNA test
confirming family lore.
His Uncle said
he had a great grandfather
On his grandmother’s side
Who was a Russian
and Ukrainian Jew.
And part Mongolian
As most Eastern Europeans are
He went to dinner with Jewish friends
Celebrating his first Rosh Hashana
As a Jewish man.
The next day while touring
the Holocaust museum
For the first time in his life
Sam Adams encountered
three young MAGA white boys
Wearing red MAGA hats
and making sexually
suggestive jokes
about Jewish women
While they were touring
the Holocaust museum.
One wondered if the Nazi guards
Were given an opportunity
To have sex
with Jewish women
Before they were sent
To the gas chambers
to be killed.
Sam Adams was very angry
and wanted to confront
the MAGA white boys
But finally decided what the hell,
It would not
Make a difference
They might think
that he was just
An old Jewish man.
And dismiss his complaints.
For them
clearly
Did
Not
understand
Nor
Care
At
all
How utterly deplorable
Disgusting and vile
Such comments were
Especially in
the Holocaust museum
The Holocaust museum
moved him deeply
And he vowed to himself
that he would do all
he could
to make sure
The world would never
see another Holocaust
Your Love Still Gives Me a thrill
Ever since I met you
My life has been a thriller
Filled with love
Mystery and desire
And thrills and spills
Every day
Filled with surprises
Filled with love
Filled with you
I fall in love with you
Every moment, every minute
Every second I see you
You
Always
Gives me such a thrill
You are indeed
The thrill
of my heart
And, baby,
The thrill is not gone away
From me
Will be with me
Forever
until the day
I die.
Korean Winter Blues
Korean winters
Are shorter than before—
Impact of climate change.
Can get very cold
As Siberian winds
Blow in from Russia,
Putting the whole country
Under a deep freeze—
Polar vortex.
It does not snow
Too much
Except in the mountains.
The coldest day
I ever experienced
Was in Korea
Back in 1979.
The AFKN radio announcer
Said it was minus 70 F
(57.C Celsius)
that morning.
I could not shave
For one week
Just too damn cold
Hot water for shaving
Froze instantly
When I First Saw You
When I first saw you
In my dreams,
You mesmerized me,
You hypnotized me.
You bewitched me
You put a love spell
On me
Your love, mojo
Working overtime.
Sparks flew
From heart to heart.
You were mine
And I was yours.
We knew it—
Someday,
We would be
Together.
It took eight years
Before you walked
Off a bus
And into my life,
Becoming my wife,
My eternal soul mate.
Robot ladybug
Robot ladybug
doing its ladybug thing
no more natural bugs left
Sam Adams returns to the Green Beaches of Oregon
Sam Adams
Returned to his native Oregon
Just after the end of the world
When the Coronavirus
Had finally morphed,
Into the dreaded zombie flu
And the zombie apocalypse
Ravaged the earth.
Sam Adams like a few others
Was immune
He returned to the Oregon coast
Walking the lonely empty
Verdant green beaches.
Looking for survivors
Finally found a few people
And they formed a little community.
Brought together by fate
They bonded
As they walked
The lonely beaches.
Oceans Dying
The whole world
Seems to be dying
The world seems
to be burning
Wildfires everywhere.
Megadrought out west,
Monster storms everywhere,
Leader’s dither and dather,
doing nothing.
but play the blame game
As the oceans
continue to die
Climate is Changing
climate is changing
bad weather is everywhere
California burns
Evil Winds Haiku
evil winds blowing
California burning
Santa Anna Wind
What Do Trees Think of Us?
what do the trees think
About us human beings
Do they fear humans?
Walking along the Winter Korean Beach
Walking along the
Winter Korean Beach
With the love of my life
By my side,
She looks at me
With red hot love
Flames shooting
From her black eyes,
Melting away my heart
Driving out the cold
of the winter beach.
11 Winter Haiku/Senryu
Published in Failed Haiku, December 2021
As winter settles in, so too do the ghosts of memory, pandemic fears, and seasonal melancholy.
These ten haiku and senryu reflect the emotional landscape of winter 2021·2022, a time marked by isolation and reflection. Originally published in Failed Haiku, this collection captures fleeting moments of sorrow, resilience, and quiet contemplation.
Winter Is Coming
Winter is coming
Cold winds whisper through the trees
Christmas drawing near
The COVID Virus
The COVID virus
Surging everywhere it seems
Winter discontent
Goodbye, 2021
Winter is coming
Two thousand twenty-two looms
Goodbye, twenty-one
Fading Memory
2021
Fading into memory
Good riddance, we say
Corona Ghosts Rise
Dreading the winter
Dreading more COVID to come
Corona ghosts rise
Winter Depression
COVID fears re-emerging
Travel restrictions return
Winter is very cold
Whispers in the Wind
Winter is so cold
With so many ghosts around
Whispers in the wind
COVID Ghosts Whisper
COVID ghosts whisper
Crying in the winter wind
YouTube blues playing
Corona Ghosts Dance
Corona ghosts dance
Wintertime sadness returns
Recalling the lost
Revelations
Winter beginning death
Are the end times coming soon?
Revelations true?
Snowing Winter Haiflu
snowing winter night
so many corona ghosts
voices crying in the wind
Sunsets of Love
My favorite time of
day
Is sunset
As the sun begins to set,
I pour a glass of wine for my wife
Or sometimes rum or whiskey
And sit down for dinner.
Drinking our drink
While watching the sunset,
Over the western sea.
Sometimes,
we take a walk
At sunset and watch the sun
Sink beneath the west sea
Off Yeoungjong Island
Near the Incheon airport town.
We live on an island
So, the sea is all around us,
The park nearby
It has splendid sea views.
And the mountain top
It is a great place
To catch the sunset
Over the nearby sea.
My favorite sunset story
Though comes from Barbados,
In the Caribbean sea.
At the right time,
Of the year,
Usually in winter,
At sunset,
When the weather
cooperates
With a few clouds
in the sky
As the sun sets,
You might be lucky
You might experience the green flash
the entire sky turns bright green,
for a flash of a second,
then settles down
into evening calm.
I experienced it four times
Four times in three years
Always a special occasion.
The locals always
claim
If you look for the green flash
It will not flash
But when you are
ready
It will show its magic
And you will be lucky
The next day.
And we celebrated
With a glass of Mt Guy rum
A perfect way
To end, a perfect sunset.
But in the end,
If I have
my wife
By my side,
The sunset will always
Be a magical ending
For another day.
In our earthy
paradise,
Spent with love
Of my life
by my side.
The Elephant in the Room
In watching
the news coverage
Of the rising crime wave
There is one thing missing
Everyone skirts around it
No one wants to deal with it
No one wants to talk
about it
No one wants to do anything else
The elephant in the room.
GUNS
GUNS
GUNS
GUNS
MORE GUNS
GUNS FOR EVERYONE
NO LIMITS
NO LICENSE
GO GET A GUN.
And Blow Someone Away
The result
More deaths
Guns kill people.
That is what they
Are designed to do
That is Buddha nature
Of guns after all.
So easy to pull the
trigger
Blow someone away
Dead people tell no tales.
MUST
GET
MY
GUN
The elephant in the room
Smiles
The NRA smiles
Their work is done.
Contaza Love Poem
On one fine day, she
came to me
She came to me
in a dream that date
Later I met her, it was fate.
She was that I want
to be
Within weeks
she became my life
Months later she
became my wife.
When I saw her, I knew
it was she
The day we met,
we went for food
Seeing her there,
lifted my mood.
From that moment
she would be mine.
From that date we
became we
For that date
in late September
Is a date
I will remember.
Sam Adams Cutting Words
Sam Adams
Has a bitter sarcastic
Cutting attitude
Infamous for his
Sam Adam’s wit
Much feared and hated
But many laughed along
As his wit
was just so funny
Unless you were the
victim
Of his verbal cuts
and put-downs.
Often unloading
on people
His bitter sarcastic
cuts
Designed to humiliate
And hurt,
zeroing in on your faults.
A true master
Of the kiss up
Kick down
Intimidation philosophy of life.
He was a verbal bully
And like most bullies
Could dish it out
But I did not appreciate it
When it was returned
Back to him.
What is Love Explained to a Space Alien
One day a spaceship
landed
Near Sam Adams’s house,
And a tall alien
Dressed in silver
Accompanied by three shorter aliens
Came to his house.
And told him,
They were from the planet Sirius,
And conducting a survey
Of the earth,
And had some
questions
For Sam Adams
They had picked him,
Because they considered him
A subject matter expert
On the topic of love.
Which was one
Of the five things,
That they could not understand
About humanity.
No one else
Among the one million
Intelligent species,
Had such a concept.
Sam asked what the
other things were
That they did not understand
They said,
US and global
politics,
God
Gun Violence
Climate Change
And finally, the issue of love,
Sam told them,
Let’s discuss these
issues
Over a beer,
The beer is on me.
Since you are visitors.
When they got
the Cosmos Bar
Sam introduced them
to the owner
And ordered drinks
The owner said to them,
Space aliens drinking in my bar.
Why not?
And served them their drinks
On the house, she said.
The aliens said,
Let’s start with love,
Tell us what this thing is
You called love,
You see in the whole
universe
There is no such concept
Of romantic love.
In most cultures, there are marriages
And most people are bisexual
And group marriages are the norm
Love is seen
As merely sexual attraction
And most people pick their partners
From computer-generated links
For we have figured
it all out
It simply matching attractions
And computers can figure that out
Not a big deal at all.
But you persist in
denying
That love is nothing but
A chemical DNA thing.
Designed to promote
Mating and carrying babies.
Explain to me
Since the media has dubbed you
The most romantic man
In the world
So again, explain it
to us
What is love?
Sam Adams answered
It comes down to this
Love is mysterious
Love is magic.
There is a certain Zen element
To love
A certain Taoist
element as well
Those who can define
it
Have never experienced it
And those who have experienced it
Can never describe it.
Love is what it is
And sometime
It is what it ain’t.
One cannot define it
But you know it
When it happens.
One can say a few
things
Love happens
When you least expect it.
Love creeps up on you
Love happens
When you are washing dishes,
Drinking wine.
Dancing at a club
Making love
For the first time
Or the 10,000th time,
And every time
It is different
Then the time before.
Love happens when you
give up
Searching for love,
Waiting for love,
Wishing for love,
Wishing for the one.
Then one day
The one walks out
Of your dreams,
And into your life
Becoming your spouse.
He told them a story
About his own love story,
“One day, my spouse
Was berating me
For all my myriad faults
All my sins against her
My omissions and
commissions
Malfeasance and misfeasance
Things I had done
And things I had failed to do.
All of which
I acknowledged
And apologized for
But finally,
I had enough
I said,
“Well, if I am so bad
So horrible
So evil a creature
And a person you hate
So much,
Why
Did you marry me?”
She laughed,
“Temporary insanity
And I am still insane.
Thirty-nine years later”.
We both laughed
And fell in love
Again,
As always,
We fall in love
With each other
Every day,
Every moment
Every second
We see each other.
It dawned on Sam
He had the answer
To the question
Told the Space aliens,
“And that my space alien friends,
Is the true unknowable madness
The true Zen spirit of love”.
“Let’s drink to
the magic of love”.
Finishing his beer
and ordering
Another round,
The lead alien said
“Well, that was
interesting
And I think we begin
To understand you all
A bit more.
You are indeed
The most interesting people
In the whole universe
And have the best
beer
Whiskey and coffee
In the known universe”.
And they drank
And talked all night long
Discussing everything
Sam tried to answer
their questions
But he so many
for them as well.
They told Sam about
the universe
And our place in it
And their plans for us.
The bartender had
Alerted the media
Who showed up,
at sunrise,
as they were
wrapping things up
drinking coffee
to finish the night.
The aliens did an
interview
And said Sam had explained
The greatest mystery of humanity
What is love?
And they said,
We will be back soon
Tell your leaders
To expect us.
And Sam,
Next time,
we will pick you up.
Some drinks
from our planet,
And the drinks are on us.
My Favorite Things
These are among me
favorite things
Drinking coffee in the morning
While watching the news
And writing in my journals
Recalling my dreams.
Talking to my wife
When she wakes up
Filling the room
With the light
Of her love.
Dispatching me
nightmares
Replacing them
With love and happiness.
Drinking tea
In the afternoon
As I work on my blog.
Evening drinking wine
At sunset
With my wife
The love of my life.
By my side
If I have her
I am the richest person
In the world.
Neo-50ths Return of the Red Menace
Sometimes watching the news
Particularly FOX news
One would think
That we are living in 1955
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
One would think
That we are living
In the red scare
Of the 1950s
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
When communism
Was a real threat
To American style capitalism
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
They call the democrats
Communists, socialists, and sometimes
Fascists
As if these three things
Are the same
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
And they have resurrected
Some of the overheated rhetoric
Of that era
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
But fortunately
Most people are not buying
What they are selling
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
Most people don’t think
That the communists are out
To destroy America
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
Realizing that there
are no communists
Left in the world
Except for a few hard-core
believers.
in Berkeley
Even the Chinese
Are not communist anymore
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communists
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
Communism died in 1990
Some
of the MAGA crowd
Don’t know that
Because they have
been brainwashed
for on the fox alternative world
it is still 1955
communists are out to get you
and scary brown people too!
And LGBTQ people
Are out to turn you gay
Or perhaps
They have been asleep
Since 1990.
Speaker Johnson
How can you say
That everyone going
To the No Kings Day Protest
Is a communist
And it is being organized
And funded by the communist party
By Communist Chinese
or North Korean money
secretly laundered through
George Soros’ foundation?
There are only
10,000 CPA members
Left alive
And 7 million patriotic Americans
Showed up
They can’t all be communists can
they?
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communism is dead
The End
3
20
20
20
Index
- Just a Halloween Nightmare
- Halloween Is Coming Too Soon
- Poisonous Junk Food Killng Us Slowly
- Ode to the Lowly Doughnut
- MAGA Neighbor Saw Me as the Devil Incarnate
- My Favorite Time Of Day
- Seeing The Taj Mahal
- Nice Weather For Ducks
- Learning He Was Jewish On Rosh Hashana
- Your Love Still Gives Me A Thrill
- Korean Winter Blues
- When I First Saw You
- Robot Lady Bug
- Sam Adams Returns To The Green Beaches Of Oregon
- Oceans Dying
- Climate Is Changing
- Evil Winds Haiku
- What Do Trees Think Of Us?
- Walking Along The Winter Korean Beach
- 11 Winter Haiflu/Senryu
- Sunsets Of Love
- The Elephant In The Room
- Contaza Love Poem
- Sam Adams Cutting Words
- What Is Love Explained To A Space Alien
- Neo-50ths Return of The Red Menace
Beginning Poems
Just a Halloween Nightmare
on Halloween
Sam Adams
went drinking
in the Cosmos Bar
In Soi Cowboy
Bangkok, Thailand
He woke up
in a dark, dangerous forest
lit by the evil full moon
creatures
out of his worst nightmares
saw him
The Chief of them all
Wears a Trumpian mask
Complete with orange hair
Half-human half pig
His deputy
Wears the face of Putin
But his body
Half-human, half-horse,
The other creatures wear masks
Many of them wear
Green Pepe the alt-right
Symbolic frog masks
And I have T-shirts
Bearing alt right slogans
And Nazi symbols
And as they prance about
They chant alt-right slogans
And neo-Nazi chants
Jews will not replace us
And the rest of these creatures
Are hideous beasts
Apes, cannibals, demons, dwarves,
Goblins, leprechauns, imps, monsters, orcs,
Pirates, satyrs, werewolves, zombies,
start chasing him
chanting
“Death to all humans
Sam Adams must die”
Just when they are about
To catch him
He wakes up
In his bed
Just another
Halloween nightmare
He concluded
Halloween is Coming Too Soon
It seems to me
That it is absurd
In the US
That COSTCO and Home Depot
Start putting out Halloween decor
In July
Christmas too
Way too soon
I say
Poisonous Junk Food Killing Us Slowly
So much of what we eat
It is not good for us
In fact
Most junk food
It is nothing but poison
Designed to be so delicious
As we eat ourselves
Into an early grave
Ode to the Lowly Doughnut
Many years ago
I used to take a coffee break
About 10 am
And had a donut and coffee
With my colleague
Sadly, being pre-diabetic
I have not eaten doughnuts in years.
MAGA Neighbor Saw Me as the Devil Incarnate
I used to have a neighbor
In Medford, Oregon
Who hated me with passion.
Because I had my Korean relatives
Staying with me and she was a hard cord
MAGA all the way Christian fundamentalist
Who no doubt saw me and my relatives
As the Devil incarnate.
My Favorite Time of Day
My favorite time
Of day
Is sunset
Cocktail hour
When I drink wine
Occasionally rum
Or whiskey
With my wife
Seeing the Taj Mahal
They say
There are two types
Of people
In this world
Those who have seen
The Taj Mahal
And those
who have not
Nice Weather for Ducks
In Seattle
During the winter it rains
The common Winter greeting
“Is nice weather
For ducks”
Who loves to play
In rainy days
Of Seattle’s winter
Learning He Was Jewish on Rosh Hashana
Sam Adams found out
Via DNA testing
On Rosh Hashanah
He was part Jewish.
That he indeed
was part Jewish.
10%
according to the DNA test
confirming family lore.
His Uncle said
he had a great grandfather
On his grandmother’s side
Who was a Russian
and Ukrainian Jew.
And part Mongolian
As most Eastern Europeans are
He went to dinner with Jewish friends
Celebrating his first Rosh Hashana
As a Jewish man.
The next day while touring
the Holocaust museum
For the first time in his life
Sam Adams encountered
three young MAGA white boys
Wearing red MAGA hats
and making sexually
suggestive jokes
about Jewish women
While they were touring
the Holocaust museum.
One wondered if the Nazi guards
Were given an opportunity
To have sex
with Jewish women
Before they were sent
To the gas chambers
to be killed.
Sam Adams was very angry
and wanted to confront
the MAGA white boys
But finally decided what the hell,
It would not
Make a difference
They might think
that he was just
An old Jewish man.
And dismiss his complaints.
For them
clearly
Did
Not
understand
Nor
Care
At
all
How utterly deplorable
Disgusting and vile
Such comments were
Especially in
the Holocaust museum
The Holocaust museum
moved him deeply
And he vowed to himself
that he would do all
he could
to make sure
The world would never
see another Holocaust
Your Love Still Gives Me a thrill
Ever since I met you
My life has been a thriller
Filled with love
Mystery and desire
And thrills and spills
Every day
Filled with surprises
Filled with love
Filled with you
I fall in love with you
Every moment, every minute
Every second I see you
You
Always
Gives me such a thrill
You are indeed
The thrill
of my heart
And, baby,
The thrill is not gone away
From me
Will be with me
Forever
until the day
I die.
Korean Winter Blues
Korean winters
Are shorter than before—
Impact of climate change.
Can get very cold
As Siberian winds
Blow in from Russia,
Putting the whole country
Under a deep freeze—
Polar vortex.
It does not snow
Too much
Except in the mountains.
The coldest day
I ever experienced
Was in Korea
Back in 1979.
The AFKN radio announcer
Said it was minus 70 F
(57.C Celsius)
that morning.
I could not shave
For one week
Just too damn cold
Hot water for shaving
Froze instantly
When I First Saw You
When I first saw you
In my dreams,
You mesmerized me,
You hypnotized me.
You bewitched me
You put a love spell
On me
Your love, mojo
Working overtime.
Sparks flew
From heart to heart.
You were mine
And I was yours.
We knew it—
Someday,
We would be
Together.
It took eight years
Before you walked
Off a bus
And into my life,
Becoming my wife,
My eternal soul mate.
Robot ladybug
Robot ladybug
doing its ladybug thing
no more natural bugs left
Sam Adams returns to the Green Beaches of Oregon
Sam Adams
Returned to his native Oregon
Just after the end of the world
When the Coronavirus
Had finally morphed,
Into the dreaded zombie flu
And the zombie apocalypse
Ravaged the earth.
Sam Adams like a few others
Was immune
He returned to the Oregon coast
Walking the lonely empty
Verdant green beaches.
Looking for survivors
Finally found a few people
And they formed a little community.
Brought together by fate
They bonded
As they walked
The lonely beaches.
Oceans Dying
The whole world
Seems to be dying
The world seems
to be burning
Wildfires everywhere.
Megadrought out west,
Monster storms everywhere,
Leader’s dither and dather,
doing nothing.
but play the blame game
As the oceans
continue to die
Climate is Changing
climate is changing
bad weather is everywhere
California burns
Evil Winds Haiku
evil winds blowing
California burning
Santa Anna Wind
What Do Trees Think of Us?
what do the trees think
About us human beings
Do they fear humans?
Walking along the Winter Korean Beach
Walking along the
Winter Korean Beach
With the love of my life
By my side,
She looks at me
With red hot love
Flames shooting
From her black eyes,
Melting away my heart
Driving out the cold
of the winter beach.
11 Winter Haiku/Senryu
Published in Failed Haiku, December 2021
As winter settles in, so too do the ghosts of memory, pandemic fears, and seasonal melancholy.
These ten haiku and senryu reflect the emotional landscape of winter 2021·2022, a time marked by isolation and reflection. Originally published in Failed Haiku, this collection captures fleeting moments of sorrow, resilience, and quiet contemplation.
Winter Is Coming
Winter is coming
Cold winds whisper through the trees
Christmas drawing near
The COVID Virus
The COVID virus
Surging everywhere it seems
Winter discontent
Goodbye, 2021
Winter is coming
Two thousand twenty-two looms
Goodbye, twenty-one
Fading Memory
2021
Fading into memory
Good riddance, we say
Corona Ghosts Rise
Dreading the winter
Dreading more COVID to come
Corona ghosts rise
Winter Depression
COVID fears re-emerging
Travel restrictions return
Winter is very cold
Whispers in the Wind
Winter is so cold
With so many ghosts around
Whispers in the wind
COVID Ghosts Whisper
COVID ghosts whisper
Crying in the winter wind
YouTube blues playing
Corona Ghosts Dance
Corona ghosts dance
Wintertime sadness returns
Recalling the lost
Revelations
Winter beginning death
Are the end times coming soon?
Revelations true?
Snowing Winter Haiflu
snowing winter night
so many corona ghosts
voices crying in the wind
Sunsets of Love
My favorite time of
day
Is sunset
As the sun begins to set,
I pour a glass of wine for my wife
Or sometimes rum or whiskey
And sit down for dinner.
Drinking our drink
While watching the sunset,
Over the western sea.
Sometimes,
we take a walk
At sunset and watch the sun
Sink beneath the west sea
Off Yeoungjong Island
Near the Incheon airport town.
We live on an island
So, the sea is all around us,
The park nearby
It has splendid sea views.
And the mountain top
It is a great place
To catch the sunset
Over the nearby sea.
My favorite sunset story
Though comes from Barbados,
In the Caribbean sea.
At the right time,
Of the year,
Usually in winter,
At sunset,
When the weather
cooperates
With a few clouds
in the sky
As the sun sets,
You might be lucky
You might experience the green flash
the entire sky turns bright green,
for a flash of a second,
then settles down
into evening calm.
I experienced it four times
Four times in three years
Always a special occasion.
The locals always
claim
If you look for the green flash
It will not flash
But when you are
ready
It will show its magic
And you will be lucky
The next day.
And we celebrated
With a glass of Mt Guy rum
A perfect way
To end, a perfect sunset.
But in the end,
If I have
my wife
By my side,
The sunset will always
Be a magical ending
For another day.
In our earthy
paradise,
Spent with love
Of my life
by my side.
The Elephant in the Room
In watching
the news coverage
Of the rising crime wave
There is one thing missing
Everyone skirts around it
No one wants to deal with it
No one wants to talk
about it
No one wants to do anything else
The elephant in the room.
GUNS
GUNS
GUNS
GUNS
MORE GUNS
GUNS FOR EVERYONE
NO LIMITS
NO LICENSE
GO GET A GUN.
And Blow Someone Away
The result
More deaths
Guns kill people.
That is what they
Are designed to do
That is Buddha nature
Of guns after all.
So easy to pull the
trigger
Blow someone away
Dead people tell no tales.
MUST
GET
MY
GUN
The elephant in the room
Smiles
The NRA smiles
Their work is done.
Contaza Love Poem
On one fine day, she
came to me
She came to me
in a dream that date
Later I met her, it was fate.
She was that I want
to be
Within weeks
she became my life
Months later she
became my wife.
When I saw her, I knew
it was she
The day we met,
we went for food
Seeing her there,
lifted my mood.
From that moment
she would be mine.
From that date we
became we
For that date
in late September
Is a date
I will remember.
Sam Adams Cutting Words
Sam Adams
Has a bitter sarcastic
Cutting attitude
Infamous for his
Sam Adam’s wit
Much feared and hated
But many laughed along
As his wit
was just so funny
Unless you were the
victim
Of his verbal cuts
and put-downs.
Often unloading
on people
His bitter sarcastic
cuts
Designed to humiliate
And hurt,
zeroing in on your faults.
A true master
Of the kiss up
Kick down
Intimidation philosophy of life.
He was a verbal bully
And like most bullies
Could dish it out
But I did not appreciate it
When it was returned
Back to him.
What is Love Explained to a Space Alien
One day a spaceship
landed
Near Sam Adams’s house,
And a tall alien
Dressed in silver
Accompanied by three shorter aliens
Came to his house.
And told him,
They were from the planet Sirius,
And conducting a survey
Of the earth,
And had some
questions
For Sam Adams
They had picked him,
Because they considered him
A subject matter expert
On the topic of love.
Which was one
Of the five things,
That they could not understand
About humanity.
No one else
Among the one million
Intelligent species,
Had such a concept.
Sam asked what the
other things were
That they did not understand
They said,
US and global
politics,
God
Gun Violence
Climate Change
And finally, the issue of love,
Sam told them,
Let’s discuss these
issues
Over a beer,
The beer is on me.
Since you are visitors.
When they got
the Cosmos Bar
Sam introduced them
to the owner
And ordered drinks
The owner said to them,
Space aliens drinking in my bar.
Why not?
And served them their drinks
On the house, she said.
The aliens said,
Let’s start with love,
Tell us what this thing is
You called love,
You see in the whole
universe
There is no such concept
Of romantic love.
In most cultures, there are marriages
And most people are bisexual
And group marriages are the norm
Love is seen
As merely sexual attraction
And most people pick their partners
From computer-generated links
For we have figured
it all out
It simply matching attractions
And computers can figure that out
Not a big deal at all.
But you persist in
denying
That love is nothing but
A chemical DNA thing.
Designed to promote
Mating and carrying babies.
Explain to me
Since the media has dubbed you
The most romantic man
In the world
So again, explain it
to us
What is love?
Sam Adams answered
It comes down to this
Love is mysterious
Love is magic.
There is a certain Zen element
To love
A certain Taoist
element as well
Those who can define
it
Have never experienced it
And those who have experienced it
Can never describe it.
Love is what it is
And sometime
It is what it ain’t.
One cannot define it
But you know it
When it happens.
One can say a few
things
Love happens
When you least expect it.
Love creeps up on you
Love happens
When you are washing dishes,
Drinking wine.
Dancing at a club
Making love
For the first time
Or the 10,000th time,
And every time
It is different
Then the time before.
Love happens when you
give up
Searching for love,
Waiting for love,
Wishing for love,
Wishing for the one.
Then one day
The one walks out
Of your dreams,
And into your life
Becoming your spouse.
He told them a story
About his own love story,
“One day, my spouse
Was berating me
For all my myriad faults
All my sins against her
My omissions and
commissions
Malfeasance and misfeasance
Things I had done
And things I had failed to do.
All of which
I acknowledged
And apologized for
But finally,
I had enough
I said,
“Well, if I am so bad
So horrible
So evil a creature
And a person you hate
So much,
Why
Did you marry me?”
She laughed,
“Temporary insanity
And I am still insane.
Thirty-nine years later”.
We both laughed
And fell in love
Again,
As always,
We fall in love
With each other
Every day,
Every moment
Every second
We see each other.
It dawned on Sam
He had the answer
To the question
Told the Space aliens,
“And that my space alien friends,
Is the true unknowable madness
The true Zen spirit of love”.
“Let’s drink to
the magic of love”.
Finishing his beer
and ordering
Another round,
The lead alien said
“Well, that was
interesting
And I think we begin
To understand you all
A bit more.
You are indeed
The most interesting people
In the whole universe
And have the best
beer
Whiskey and coffee
In the known universe”.
And they drank
And talked all night long
Discussing everything
Sam tried to answer
their questions
But he so many
for them as well.
They told Sam about
the universe
And our place in it
And their plans for us.
The bartender had
Alerted the media
Who showed up,
at sunrise,
as they were
wrapping things up
drinking coffee
to finish the night.
The aliens did an
interview
And said Sam had explained
The greatest mystery of humanity
What is love?
And they said,
We will be back soon
Tell your leaders
To expect us.
And Sam,
Next time,
we will pick you up.
Some drinks
from our planet,
And the drinks are on us.
My Favorite Things
These are among me
favorite things
Drinking coffee in the morning
While watching the news
And writing in my journals
Recalling my dreams.
Talking to my wife
When she wakes up
Filling the room
With the light
Of her love.
Dispatching me
nightmares
Replacing them
With love and happiness.
Drinking tea
In the afternoon
As I work on my blog.
Evening drinking wine
At sunset
With my wife
The love of my life.
By my side
If I have her
I am the richest person
In the world.
Neo-50ths Return of the Red Menace
Sometimes watching the news
Particularly FOX news
One would think
That we are living in 1955
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
One would think
That we are living
In the red scare
Of the 1950s
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
When communism
Was a real threat
To American style capitalism
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
They call the democrats
Communists, socialists, and sometimes
Fascists
As if these three things
Are the same
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
And they have resurrected
Some of the overheated rhetoric
Of that era
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
But fortunately
Most people are not buying
What they are selling
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
Most people don’t think
That the communists are out
To destroy America
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
Realizing that there
are no communists
Left in the world
Except for a few hard-core
believers.
in Berkeley
Even the Chinese
Are not communist anymore
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communists
There are no communists left
Communists are dead.
Communism died in 1990
Some
of the MAGA crowd
Don’t know that
Because they have
been brainwashed
for on the fox alternative world
it is still 1955
communists are out to get you
and scary brown people too!
And LGBTQ people
Are out to turn you gay
Or perhaps
They have been asleep
Since 1990.
Speaker Johnson
How can you say
That everyone going
To the No Kings Day Protest
Is a communist
And it is being organized
And funded by the communist party
By Communist Chinese
or North Korean money
secretly laundered through
George Soros’ foundation?
There are only
10,000 CPA members
Left alive
And 7 million patriotic Americans
Showed up
They can’t all be communists can
they?
Repeat after me
The democrats are not communist
There are no communists left
Communism is dead
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