I sing life’s little
Pleasures – warm underpants pulled
Fresh from the drier
haiku
By heart
Why only poems
songs or tunes? It’s life itself
we must learn by heart
On being laconic
The Spartans of course were masters of the laconic – the area they lived in gave us the word. Wikipedia quotes this example of antique pithiness:
Philip II of Macedon, after invading southern Greece and receiving the submission of other key city-states, sent a message to Sparta:
You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city.[3]
The Spartan ephors replied with a single word: ‘If’
Philip didn’t proceed with the invasion.
Haikus are laconic. This one – posted in the Quartz Daily briefing today – describing Trump’s tax plans appealed to me strongly:
Something
For everyone. And a lot
For the very rich.
I thought it could just as easily form the strapline for the Tory party manifesto here in the UK.
Frogs and bees
In the warm, damp dusk
A frog settles on my foot
Companionably
This bee and I want
Nothing more than to lose ourselves
In that bright blossom
Owl
Ghosting alongside
The owl turns to stare – crossly –
too, too, too much noise!
Early blossom
This blossom, gone so
Quickly, marks no ending, leaves
Will follow, and fruit.
