Tag: jack hohenstein

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End of Fall

Yes it isn’t even Winter yet and here we are with record snow on the ground and Christmas just a few days away.  

From Jack Hohenstein, Frankford’s resident Haiku master.  The captions are my own.

That storm blew and blew .

I can’t see the wind,

But I see the swirling snow

And I imagine.

Digging out.

The snow shovel stops.

Honking geese fill sky and ear.

They used to go south.

Walking down to the Avenue

Hard city snow paths –

Crooked ice limits and dares –

Maps of history.

Getting ready for Christmas this week.

Innocent fir tree,

Naked as Adam and Eve,

Awaiting Christmas.

People getting together for the holiday.

Christmas and New Year’s,

Gatherings and leave-takings,

Bittersweet blessings

Then the glow of the holiday is over.

It is always hard

To say goodbye to Christmas.

We undressed the tree.

Thinking back in time of Christmas past.

No amount of talk

Can image for our children

Our lives as children.

From One Temperature by Jack Hohenstein.  Copyright 2005 Jack Hohenstein, Published by Full Court Press, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

There are copies of Jack’s book available at the Free Library branch in Frankford.

 

 

 

 

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End of Summer

From Jack Hohenstein, Frankford’s resident Haiku master.  The captions are my own.hohenstein026

For the Phillies on the home stretch

3 to 6 to 1

Masterpiece of time and grace,

Baseball at its best

Jim Ryan and the Friends of Pennypack

Quiet Pennypack

Flows gently through shade and sun…

Distant football sounds

The boardwalk

Squawking gull goes off

Like a two-noted rooster

Claiming the morning.

Time to head south.

Birds, thousands of birds

Darkening Avalon’s skies

On the long way south

Life is brief.

In time, the leaf falls

And the tree remembers it

For a little while.

From One Temperature by Jack Hohenstein.  Copyright 2005 Jack Hohenstein, Published by Full Court Press, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

There are copies of Jack’s book available at the Free Library branch in Frankford.

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First Day of Summer

From Frankford’s Haiku Master Jack Hohenstein:hohenstein026

Azalea hedges,

Shapes tamed by human fancy

But not the colors!

My father got his first concussion here.

How many young knees

Scraped on Whitehall’s cindered fields

Remember the Games?

So much rain this Spring.

The narrow garden

Gets ten minutes of sunshine

And uses each one.

Everything growing so fast everywhere.

No Trespassing sign,

But the dandelion seeds

Cannot read a word.

Our fathers.

I could hear Dad laugh

As I wiped bird dropping

From his plain gravestone.

From One Temperature by Jack Hohenstein.  Copyright 2005 Jack Hohenstein, Published by Full Court Press, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

There are copies of Jack’s book available at the Free Library branch in Frankford.

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First Day of Spring

From Jack Hohenstein, resident Haiku master:hohenstein026

March thaw melts the snow.

It’s no time to go walking

With holes in your shoes.

Another Winter passes…

Imagine yourself

A flowering tree, working,

Waiting for April.

and Spring

The brisk May wind blows.

Last year’s leaf at Kerry’s feet

Waits to be noticed.

From One Temperature by Jack Hohenstein.  Copyright 2005 Jack Hohenstein, Published by Full Court Press, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

There are copies of Jack’s book available at the Free Library branch in Frankford.  Also interesting is that Amazon has not picked up Jack’s book but does carry a game invented by Jack.  You can see it on our bookstore page.  He is a multi-talented individual.

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Frankford’s Haiku Master

I spent nearly two years in Japan soaking up the culture but I never appreciated Haiku until I read Jack Hohenstein’s book.  This makes Jack my second favorite poet after Walt Whitman, not bad.  The idea is to express something in very few words.  Jack’s book is filled with Haiku about life.  You will see Frankford in there along with other places and people and family.  hohenstein026

I asked Jack for permission to include a few of his Haiku and he only stipulated that I pick a good one.  The photograph cover was by Mike Hohenstein, Jack’s son.  Published by Full Court Press, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.  Jack is a resident of Frankford and we are lucky to have him.

These are three of my favorite:

Without bugs and birds

Would human beings have dreamed

That they too could fly?

Street scene

Her daughter in tow

Mother, son and open book

Spell their way to school.

and finally

I notice the snake

That turns laughter to slaughter

And become silent.

Copyright 2005 Jack Hohenstein