08 March 2013

senryu 3/08/13

pandora playing
dishwasher hums in kitchen
my eyelids can't stay...

©2013-Art Belliveau

07 March 2013

senryu 3/07/13


in your eyes
there is such laughter
it rocks my world

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu 3/06/13

two inches behind
my slowly wrink'ling forehead
i am still eighteen

©2013-Art Belliveau

sedoka

quiet afternoon
low clouds with no hint of rain
shelter me from the sun’s heat
a mockingbird chirps
interrupting the silence
but improving it as well

©2013-Art Belliveau

04 March 2013

shadorma

This one is a little over a year old.

you are gone
you’ve vanished like smoke
i wonder
where you are
what it is you are doing
why torture myself?

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

in the night’s quiet
i hear the dormant echoes
of lost family life

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

i’ve misplaced my smile
i’ve looked for it everywhere
it is in your eyes

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

i listen for God
hoping once to hear His voice
my daughter calls me

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

red, yellow, brown leaves
a murder of crows cawing
breaking the silence

©2013-Art Belliveau

02 March 2013

haiku

it’s already here
lavender wisteria--
spring’s still two days off

©2013-Art Belliveau

swim meet senryu

chlorine in the air--
excitement and effort, too--
day at the swim meet

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

only one more week
'til my spring vacation--
it’s so hard to wait

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

falling through the void
spinning out of control--
who knows where i’ll land?

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

from red horizon
black clouds billow up like smoke--
dragonfire sunset

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

another “goodnight”
sing cardinals and sparrows
the sun’s not quite down

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

i am surrounded
by a sense of foreboding--
the sky is clear blue

©2013-Art Belliveau

Feb 29

every four years
we get this one extra day--
hope i don’t waste it

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

rains fell earlier--
filling up the dry creek bed
with laughing water

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

furious birds fly
flock screaming defiance
laughed at by the creek

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

rocks tossed in the creek
ripples start, but disappear--
engulfed by currents

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

a black silhouette
backlit by pale green-blue sky--
what will the night hold?

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

black clouds stain the sky
like an oil spill suspended--
waiting to descend

©2013-Art Belliveau

really?

the sun’s not yet up
birds are singing in the trees--
this early? really?

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

working on a poem
early on an Ash Wednesday--
where’s the inspriation?

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

spring in the winter
seasons have become confused--
i’m confused as well

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

sun-drenched afternoon
and darkness blooms within me--
an empty playground

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

timid little squirrel
shimmies up a live oak tree--
as he hears me come

©2013-Art Belliveau

playground dusk

the creak of a swing
chirping steadily at dusk
echoes of crickets
©2013-Art Belliveau

mass

gathered together
from many we all form one--
communion of souls

©2013-Art Belliveau

zzzzap

out of the clear sky
lightning strikes--rips me apart
the healing is slow

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

blanket of grey fog
obscuring my nightime yard
like a fireless smoke


 ©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

through the long leaf pines
the afterglow of sunset
no insects singing

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

full moon behind trees
shining for all it’s worth
til hidden by clouds

©2013-Art Belliveau

planning period

eyelids so heavy
drag down my entire head
to sleep on my desk

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

orange sun behind
pale full moon floating ahead
i’m in the middle


©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

missing church again
is my girl’s soul in peril?
we need some prayers

©2013-Art Belliveau

swim meet

hurry up and wait
long boredom/brief excitement--
another swim meet

©2013-Art Belliveau

friday!

week’s finally over
nothing gets me down today--
gotta love fridays!

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

a beautiful day
too pretty to be in school--
i’m playing hooky

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

grey clouds hover low
beneath them fog hugs the ground--
above them the sun

 ©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

with trembling hands,
he reaches for communion--
with a child’s pure faith

©2013-Art Belliveau

which way?

new horizons loom
the past unravels behind--
which way will i go?

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

it seems so like spring
a warm January day--
sign of days to come?

©2013-Art Belliveau

metaphor

it slips from my hands
smashes when it hits the floor--
i hate metaphors

©2013-Art Belliveau

hidden

i put on the mask
that keeps everyone at bay--
why am i alone?

©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

i see them at mass
by and large they are strangers--
but we’re family, too

©2013-Art Belliveau

saturday classroom

quiet hall
empty this morning
weekend day
no students
tomorrow this will all change--
it will teem with life

©2013-Art Belliveau

murderer

where has the time gone?
i have thoroughly killed it--
and hidden its corpse

©2013-Art Belliveau

mayflies

never time to think;
mayflies live for but a day--
us, not much longer


©2013-Art Belliveau

swim practice

echoes of splashes
reverberate ’round the room
vicarious swim

©2013-Art Belliveau

insomnia senryu

another late night--
or should i say early morn?
damn insomnia

©2013-Art Belliveau

One Step Too Far

He healed the sick--
     They left Him alone.
He berated their hypocrisy--
They left Him alone.
He broke the Sabbath--
They left Him alone.
He treated women as equals--
They left Him alone.
He performed miracle after miracle--
They left Him alone.
He threatened their power--and their income--
by clearing out the temple.
They killed Him.

©2013-Art Belliveau

haiku

a dead long leaf pine
leans on its living brother--
how long 'til it falls?


 ©2013-Art Belliveau

Testy

The desks are set up,
Each row straight.
As we prepare for
The test we hate.
I doubt that this,
Is worth the cost:
Another day
Of learning lost.


 ©2013-Art Belliveau

Portrait Poem

I'm a grumpy old guy who's tired of the nonsense.
I wonder what it will take for my students to take their education seriously.
I hear students continually talking no matter what the consequence.
I see students wandering out of their seats as though they had permission.
I want them to care about what I am teaching. I want to care about what I'm teaching.
I'm a grumpy old guy who's tired of the nonsense.

I pretend that I still have some patience left.
I feel the temptation to softly and silently slip away.
I touch the limits of my endurance.
I worry about the ones who will never reach their full potential.
I cry out impatient, sarcastic shouts of vexation.
I'm a grumpy old guy who's tired of the nonsense.

I understand that there is only so much I can do.
I say every one of my students has the ability to succeed.
I dream that they will actually live up to that ability and use it to its fullest.
I try to get them to the point where they will be successful beyond me.
I hope they all live out their dreams.
I'm a grumpy old guy who's tired of the nonsense.


©2013-Art Belliveau

Pantoum--Friday Afternoons Are Deadly

Friday afternoons are deadly.
The week’s frustrations have built up pressure
Like a faulty radiator.
The classroom seems ready to explode.

The week’s frustrations have built up pressure.
We need to do something new and different because
The classroom seems ready to explode.
And that isn’t good for anyone.

We need to do something new and different because
We all are stuck in the same old rut.
And that isn’t good for anyone.
Least of all me, the teacher.

We all are stuck in the same old rut.
No one wants to be here.
Least of all me, the teacher.
We need to blow off some steam.

No one wants to be here.
Like a faulty radiator,
We need to blow off some steam.
Friday afternoons are deadly.

 ©2013-Art Belliveau

tanka

feeling trapped again
life, a bear trap, biting me
i see others fly
my own wings long to break free
all it would take is courage

 ©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu

the scratch of my pen
as i write in my journal
a sound from the past


 ©2013-Art Belliveau

teaching? --a senryu

i no longer teach.
i "deliver instruction."
that's very diff'rent.


©2013-Art Belliveau

senryu 3/2/13

i reached nine hundred.
i stopped without explaining--
even to myself.


©2013-Art Belliveau