Haiku Postcards - AWP 2017

Split This Rock was in full force at the Associated Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Washington, DC, February 8-11, 2017. This year's conference was jammed pack with poetic resistance and one of our favorite highlights is the Haiku postcards, inviting attendees to send messages to the President or their representatives. We're sharing some of our favorites here.

HAIKU

it is beautiful
but it is just too damn cold
help them find their warmth

-- anonymous

Mom, I say, Please don't
leaves fall slower than my hope
Another let down

--anonymous

HAIKU TO PRESIDENT TRUMP

Oregon is real dope
Try not to ruin Portland
Save the arts alright

-- Will Schweinfurth

Words of history,
cold on the page, flare in the
flame of burning books

-- Virginia Gilbert

Mr. President
You depend on our silence
I have some bad news

-- anonymous

Hey Donald J. Trump
Help us save our grandchildren
Climate change is real

-- anonymous

this land was never
yours. Didn't your mother teach
you better than that?

-- anonymous

DeVostation comes
to publicize education.
Come on! Grow a spine!

-- anonymous

The earth is dying
My body is no longer mine
Not one of you care

-- a student afraid for the future

I wonder if
you've sat down
to eat at a
Persian Restaurant
ate Lebanese food --
Heard poetry from that world?

-- anonymous

I dislike you. Please
Do not do anything ever.
Eat Mexican food.

-- anonymous

How long will my gay
marriage last? forever is
relative these days.

-- anonymous

Gentle, angry -- we
Life up. Fists, hearts. And justice,
Holds us. Does not die.

-- Brook Petersen

Save us from today
Help us stand for peace and love
We did not choose this

-- anonymous

Orange ogres are not
fit to decide who should get
rights and who should not

-- Alex Carrigan

History and glass
capitol like the country
yes, it can be broken

-- RJ Hazard

HAIKU TO REPRESENTATIVES

To Congressman Earl Blumenaur

This is a shit show
How can we get to that point
Four years is so far

-- Kole Nakamore

To Congressman Tom McClintock

The Cabinet
Before spring blooms
Our land has seen such darkness
Facism is a slippery slope

To Attorney General

This fox, in his suit
Will be the one to assume
No hens face injustice

-- Robin Martin

Haiku for President Obama: 2016 Festival Edition

During the 2016 Split This Rock Poetry Festival, we asked participants to write a Haiku for President Obama. We're sending them to the president today!

The haiku written were on many different themes and social issues, including the Black Lives Matter movement, transgender issues, and drones. There were also many haiku thanking the president for his time in office and wishing him luck and happiness on the journey that will follow.

Reflecting blood pool,

We drone on and on and on.

I hear their cries last.

                           –Michael Newheart

You shine in our time

All time waits with

held breath

Silence after drones

                     –Simone Roberts

Shine for your people

Black lives need your brave support

I believe in you

                     –Nicholas Pierce

No home; a soft chair

in the warm library. Books’

pages open wide.

              -Kim Leith

Chemicals can kill

Syrians have been calling

For a no fly zone

               –Eli J.

Outside the oval

Your actions have us reeling

And lend us breath, too

                                –Lauren Kokun

Two blocks from the White

House, poets are brewing the

real revolution

                              –Anonymous

We will miss you lots
You have worked miracles
You are remembered
                          –Anonymous

Let your last act as

President be a repeal

of all term limits

 #3 terms?

                             –Anonymous

Leonard Peltier
needs your attention now

Grant him the spring air!

                                    – Nell Morningstar

I voted for you,

Bright black star to blur hard lines

Shame on the wealthy whites' dark greed!

                                  –Patsy Asuncion

Free Chelsea Manning

Free all trans prisoners

You knew she was right

                            –Tyler Vile

Barack’s drones bloom

the tulips in Pakistan

are dying

                                 –Jerry Fishman

I couldn’t be less

interested in the office

of imperial power.

                             –Anonymous

Please release release

Please release release release

Leonard Peltier

                           –Nubia Kai 

Spring comes to D.C.

Waning of your presidency

Let bloom the voiceless

                    –Phyllis

While those folks spewed words

Of hate and competition

We passed our Love Poems

                                 –John Rosenwald

I’m still holding hope

Green shoot watered by your words

The light in your eyes

                        –Anonymous

Standing on your lawn

Your house is not as good as

You grilling on your balcony

                                        –Christopher Carmona

Lame ducks still can fly

Don’t let the bastards rope you,

hold you down. You soar.

                         –Margo Solod

Please release release

Please release release release

Mutulu Shakur

                       –Anonymous

Your imperfections

the work undone, work unsung

Please stay strong, be brave

                    –Carol Evans

Blessings dear Barack

Your lovely family too

Life, legacy goes on on

                    –Carol Evans

Sit still not caring

About who hears the trembling

In your fractured heart
                              –Joya M. Latham

The spring has come forth

Your departure has come near

We need you to stay

                  –Anonymous

I know you hear us

And I know you want to help

But it’s not working

                 –Bri Griffith

The hood is love

Don’t let them kill us Barack

8 years gone too soon

                           –Anthony Morales

Haiku Postcards to the President: AWP 2013 Edition

Haiku Postcards to the President: 

AWP 2013 Edition

 

If you were at AWP this year, you may have stopped by Split This Rock's table at the bookfair and encountered one (or all) of the smiling faces above. These are a few of our staff and volunteers who may have urged you to write a haiku postcard to President Obama.  We've read through them all and pulled the most inventive, the most powerful, the funniest. Read them below! And thanks to all those who shared their voices with us.

The whole campus cheered

The night you were elected

We watched. Eyes wide-tears.

-          Lianne McCray

The silence before the drone

And the heavier silence

Forever After

-          Corrie Etter

Snow blows in the wind

Empty apartment windows

Dusty with promise

-          Lyle Daggett

Birds fly high over

The city. Snow muffles loud

Mouth voices below

-          Dr. Virginia Gilbert

Split the rock and hear

Musical notes rise to

Awaken your sleeping soul.

-          Satya Plalaparty

On the subject of

Drones – focus on the bees, sir,

Not on weaponry.

-          Liz Lanedale

Mr. President

Take congress out for Tacos.

Everything will change.

-          Kate Eber 

The love of country,

Honor, pride, justice, and peace

Collide a rainbow.

-          Yolanda J. Franklin

Yes humanity

Yes peace yes music of love

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

-          Dawn Lonsinger

Be your conscience. Don’t

Bow under the weighted snowfall

Of everyone’s gaze.

-          Andrew Kozma 

Because I love her

I want to marry her lips

Legalize our kiss

-          Leigh Phillips

Holes on highways leave

Broken bits of gravel in

The craks of my skin

-          Nicole Byrne

Education for

Our youth, or do you intend

To make drones of them?

-          Pages Matam

Haikus to President Obama Pt. 2

The Egyptians just demonstrated the influence a unified people can have on their government. In our continuing effort to do our part, here are some more selections from our Haikus to the President Campaign:

I think therefore, I
am; a timebomb ticks therefore,
I am a torturer.

- Jim Hayes

Save our butterfly
world and all its blue glory
so we can breath free

- Nancy White

When identity is post-hope
a field charred into coal
a whisper of a bromeliad

- J. Michael Martiez

Power to the people.

Haiku To President Obama

The following are haiku my GW University Writing students created at the end of their semester. Although I could not post all my students' creations here, I am very proud of them. - Katherine

I would have voted
for you if I were 18
Show me I was right
- Rachel Sher

Pain, destruction, hope
Anger has taken hold of
Change, promised yet false
- S.J. Tilden

The frail, red-cloaked man
just wanted to shake your hand
fallen to the East
- Jade Batstone

War

The Apes kill themselves.
We destroy each other too.
Where is the difference?
- A.J. Hudson

inches predicted?
weather man talks job report
to believe or not?
- Alexander Leanos

Haiku to President Obama

At our table at AWP, we asked visitors to write Haiku postcards to President Obama. It was (and still is) an opportunity to let him hear the voices of poets and writers and all those who have the ability to imagine a world that is better.

Despite my best intentions, I was too exhausted at the end of each day to post during the event. Here are some of my favorite Haiku from AWP. I hope to post more soon. If you're interested in writing a Haiku postcard to the president, please email me.

asked "how long" -
the general's hands spread
wider
-Barry George

Promises burn wide.
My health diminishes you,
You of your questions.
- McKenzie S.

Health care flashing on
cherry blossoms unfold now
rose flushed with vigor
- Joanie Mackowski

You aren't much better
cause you're still beholden to
capitalism

- Lauren Eggert-Crowe