Haiku 53

Haiku (Never Published) by Allen Ginsberg

Drinking my tea

Without sugar-

No difference.

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The sparrow shits

upside down

--ah! my brain & eggs

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Mayan head in a

Pacific driftwood bole

--Someday I'll live in N.Y.

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Looking over my shoulder

my behind was covered

with cherry blossoms.

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Winter Haiku

I didn't know the names

of the flowers--now

my garden is gone.

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I slapped the mosquito

and missed.

What made me do that?

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Reading haiku

I am unhappy,

longing for the Nameless.

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A frog floating

in the drugstore jar:

summer rain on grey pavements.

(after Shiki)

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On the porch

in my shorts;

auto lights in the rain.

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Another year

has past-the world

is no different.

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The first thing I looked for

in my old garden was

The Cherry Tree.

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My old desk:

the first thing I looked for

in my house.

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My early journal:

the first thing I found

in my old desk.

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My mother's ghost:

the first thing I found

in the living room.

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I quit shaving

but the eyes that glanced at me

remained in the mirror.

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The madman

emerges from the movies:

the street at lunchtime.

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Cities of boys

are in their graves,

and in this town...

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Lying on my side

in the void:

the breath in my nose.

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On the fifteenth floor

the dog chews a bone-

Screech of taxicabs.

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A hardon in New York,

a boy

in San Fransisco.

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The moon over the roof,

worms in the garden.

I rent this house.

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[Haiku composed in the backyard cottage at 1624

Milvia Street, Berkeley 1955, while reading R.H.

Blyth's 4 volumes, "Haiku."]

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