AfroPoets Famous Writers

Haiku


1
Eastern guard tower
glints in sunset; convicts rest
like lizards on rocks.


2
The piano man
is stingy, at 3 A.M.
his songs drop like plum.


3
Morning sun slants cell.
Drunks stagger like cripple flies
On jailhouse floor.


4
To write a blues song
is to regiment riots
and pluck gems from graves.


5
A bare pecan tree
slips a pencil shadow down
a moonlit snow slope.


6
The falling snow flakes
Cannot blunt the hard aches nor
Match the steel stillness.


7
Under moon shadows
A tall boy flashes knife and
Slices star bright ice.


8
In the August grass
Struck by the last rays of sun
The cracked teacup screams.


9
Making jazz swing in
Seventeen syllables AIN'T
No square poet's job.

Written by Etheridge Knight (1931-1991)

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