Robert Demaree- Poetry

TANKA FOR TODAY

Harriet Tubman

New face on the twenty

Sadness of our time

How politically correct

Came to be pejorative.

Doctors’ waiting room

Medical TV turned on

Lots of good advice

Diabetes and the like

Just as soon watch Judge Judy.

FROM A HAIKU JOURNAL

The Arts

Impressionist art

New England seacoast somewhere

Docent not sure where.

She sang with the Met

Mezzo, Saint-Saens’ Delilah

But not anymore.

Second chair empty

Dvorak concerto played

In her memory.

Sense of Place

Coal smoke in the air

Nineteen fifty railroad train

Pennsylvania town

Town thick with strip malls

Both sides of the thoroughfare

Lots of nails salons.

Ionic columns

Elegant white frame mansion

Used to be right there.

SENRYU FOR CHARLIE

In memory of Charlie Churchill

Taken suddenly

That deep rich New England voice

Poet friend, mentor

Robert Demaree is the author of three book-length collections, including After Labor Day (2014) published by Beech River Books. He presents poetry readings, seminars and workshops in North Carolina (October through June) and New England (June through October). Next programs: Effingham Library Poetry Seminar, Effingham, N.H., June 25. Reading at Hill Library, Center Strafford, N.H., Wednesday, June 29, 7:00 p.m. The Haiku Journal is a project to write one haiku or senyru each day for a year.