The Lark: Vol 5, Issue 16, April 2026

My Haiku Period

 by Robert Kemp

I am a dabbler in doggerel. I have written limericks and parodies. The length of my poems has tended to be proportional to my sense of outrage. My tour de force was a 80-couplet summary of The Mueller Report. The Early Years, from 2001 through 2015 were my Haiku Period.

I don’t remember exactly when I started to write them, or what the first one was, but once I started, I found it difficult to stop. For the most part they were not typical haikus with a focus on nature, but were more on the order of “pun-kus,’ with lots of plays on words. Occasionally, I wrote a real haiku by accident.

wet snow falls on buds
confused by the promise
of an early spring

leaves flicker and dance
stirred to joyous motion by
a blossom-sweet breeze

at our latitude
spring arrives reluctantly,
summer, suddenly

Photo by Siegfried Poepperl on Unsplash

The year 2001 was the year I was almost reorganized out of a job at Textron Inc. but I landed safely at one of Textron’s business units, which unfortunately involved a 76-mile drive from Barrington, Rhode Island, to Wilmington, Massachusetts. One morning my commute was rewarded with a beautiful sight.

sunrise at my back,
ahead, in brightening dawn,
the magical moon!

The same year became a year of profound sadness on September 11.

shafts of ghostly light
where the twin towers once stood –
before the world changed

https://unsplash.com/@maculan

Through the kindness of Textron friends, I was permitted to have offices both in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, but at the cost of being away from home in the frightening days of anthrax and the drumbeats of war. One of my favorite political haikus combined the 5-7-5 meter of the haiku with an anagram-inspired theme about the idealistic motivation of the Iraq war.

evangelical
“avenge all ill, vain eagle” –
an evil angel

One consolation was that I was beginning to acquire a reputation among my colleagues as one who could write haikus for occasions or in response to current events. I noticed a connection between good headline writing and the economy and thematic precision needed write a good haiku.

the headline writer
possesses a surprising gift
for the lyrical

the headlines inspire,
with poignant economy,
the poems of the day

It became an obsession.  I wrote haiku about haiku.

haiku lend themselves
to powerful expression
of a single thought

this ancient art form
delineates gracefully
all manner of things

discipline of form,
taming impulse and anger,
setting the mind free

you who have mastered
the venerable art form
earn haiku kudos

a time to write verse
a time to refrain from verse
haiku hiatus

My favorite haikus were the silly ones, and I wrote them about current events, economics, human nature, law, fashion, imaginary creatures, and the internet – whatever insinuated itself into my consciousness. And sometimes they were risqué.

rating agencies
have made investors moody:
their standards were poor

Attorney-Client
Privileged Memorandum:
forget about it!

why the law’s delay?
simple – because attorneys
bill by the hour

of all our tenants
Victoria’s Secret is
fairest of the mall

elusive creature
we search for you all over
but no sign Yeti

all google-eyed, we
surf our streams of consciousness,
connecting the thoughts

blaming of the shrew
argumentative and mean,
she gives great headache

Frequently they were revised. Here is the latest revision of one written long ago. It is now for us.

they will never know
memories that die with us
unless we share them

-30-