Black-jack Poetry

 

You are undoubtedly familiar with Haiku, the form of poetry that condenses a single phenomenon into 17 syllables in three lines: 

“A World of Dew” by Kobayashi Issa

A world of dew,

And within every dewdrop

A world of struggle.

I have recently learned of another form of poetic abbreviation: Black-Jack poems. The idea is similar, but the format provides 21 syllables (hence the name) in three lines. I've been fooling around with the form for a couple of weeks. Here are some examples:

I'm indifferent to "gods."

"Yeah there are," or "No there ain't?"

Utterly irrelevant!

I cannot be expected
To meet stupidity with
Placid equanimity.

I have some, a few, regrets.

But they don't trouble me like

That mountain of karmic debt.

 The Dog watches as I eat,

Silently reproaching me

For every bite I DON'T share.

A country staggering like

A behemoth lurching from

Unhealed mortal injury.

 

"Not today!" Why not "Today?"

Is the evidence of your

Hypocrisy still bleeding?

Do any spent blossoms look

More ravaged than irises

When their flashy days are done?

 

My heart's been dormant so long

--Ten years last June since she died--

I can't disturb it now.

The thing about blasphemy

Is, it's really GOTTA STING.

Otherwise, why'd ya bother?

In this vernal, desert light, 

green's to blue as black to white;

on the ether, nature writes. 

Iris in its "pupal" stage:

Fat bulge on a sturdy stalk.

Then, the blossom emerges.

The Dog watches as I eat,
Silently reproaching me
For every bite I DON'T share.The Dog watches as I eat,