POEM: ESSENCE OF NEW ORLEANS HAIKU SEQUENCE

photo by Alex Lear

 

 

 

Essence of New Orleans

Haiku Sequence


 

French Quarter Intimacies

 

through weathered wood dark

on shadowed streets ancient voices

whisper history

 

 


New Orleans Rainbow

 

from buttered gold to

purpled black, the sundry shades

of my people shine

 

 


Our Natures Rise

 

hard core nights are so

erotic, a whiff of the

breeze is narcotic

 

 

 


Sunrise On The River

 

shy dawn tenderly

gold tongue kisses the rippling

river's flowing face

 

 


Til Death Do Us Part

 

rain or shine each day

we celebrate a sacred

love affair with life

 

 


Secondline Send Off

 

here we raise the dead

hoist them heavenward on winged

music hades hot

 

 


Quarter Moon Rise

 

soft moon shimmers out

of cloudy dress, stirred by night's

suggestive caress

 

 


All Nite Long

 

amid dancing &

drinking til dewed dawn, nights stretch

24 hours long

 

 


The Spice Of Life

 

cayenne in our blood

we dance, eat, laugh, cry & love

with peppered passion

 

 

 


St. Louis Cemetery Crypt

 

bones float in raised stone,

white, altared graves, blood transformed,

become black souled thrones

 

 


Makes You Go Oohhh!

 

sing of lusty foods

so savory they buck jump

cross your tongue's dance floor

 

—kalamu ya salaam