f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

If you are looking for the haiku of Peggy Willis Lyles, start at her f/k/a Archive Page, which has links to scores of postings that have two or more of Peggy’s poems (including this post).

With picture-perfect location and weather, the family and friends of my friends Elizabeth and Barry came together in August 2007, at Thacher State Park, in Albany County, NY, to celebrate the couple’s marriage.  Cynics might wonder why two liberal-minded Baby Boomers, who have each “experienced a prior marriage,” would want or need to formalize and legalize their relationship by getting married again. The f/k/a Gang can only say that seeing Barry and Elizabeth together, whispering in quick embraces, or dancing with achy backs and a bit of gray hair, to songs they might have heard at their first weddings, is ample evidence that they bring a wiser brand of expectations, mature love, and relationship tools, into this their Last Marriage than they did the first time.  My bet is that they will both be very pleased they made this choice — and so will their loved ones — when their Silver Anniversary comes around in 2032.

The wedding-celebration crowd that overflowed with love and admiration for the artsy Elizabeth and computer-minded Barry included her still-married octogenarian parents; divorced, married and single folk spanning three generations; Elizabeth’s divorce lawyer; childhood friends who have stayed together for decades; and adult friends still looking for Ms. or Mr. Right. We all came away well-fed (a little too much carrot cake for me), smiling, and a bit more hopeful about life and love. Some of us might even be tucking away today’s 2007 Wedding Issue of the Washington Post Magazine (Sept. 2, 2007), which takes “a look at matrimony from the male perspective.”

With the help of my haijin friends, I put together a collection of haiku and senryu to help celebrate the Baby Boomer wedding and marriage of Elizabeth and Barry.  They were used to create a tri-fold brochure that was handed out at their wedding celebration.  [Please note that they were not meant to reflect the biographies of the wedding couple; any similarlities are, as they say, purely coincidental.]  The multi-faceted poems are presented here for your enjoyment :

a haiku celebration of
the marriage of

Barry & Elizabeth

shimmering pines
a taste of the mountain
from your cupped hands

……………………………………… by peggy willis lyles

deep autumn
the gleam of his wedding band
as he tends the fire

circle of pines
God absent
from the wedding vows

……………………………………………. by carolyn hall

wedding reception –
the weight of her bottle
on the lip of my cup

……………………………………….. by michael dylan welch

wind and rain
the hand I reach for
in the dark

………………………………………. by peggy willis lyles

silently
she lures me to the kitchen
peeled tangerine

it’s pink! it’s purple!
sunset inspires
more bickering

…………………………………… by david giacalone

dizzy from
the altar wine…
“i do”

honeymoon night
the sex
just sex

honeymoon photo
a mountain path ascends
into the mist

junk drawer
under a pile of tangled laces
our wedding portrait

………………………………………………. by ed markowski

mother-in-law…
he adjusts the sprinkler
for the fourth time

two petals
left on the daisy…
her furrowed brow

………………………….. by laryalee fraser

late night rain–
he reads to me from the book
I read to him

leaves turned to gold —
he still know all the words
to that old love song

…………………………………. by Billie Wilson

planting bulbs
the ring I gave you
in sunlight

mountain lake-
basking
in your reflection

sunrise
we lower
the blinds

……………………………………. by Yu Chang

shifting clouds
I twist
my wedding ring

…………………………………..…. by pamela miller ness

flea market-
seeing my old shirt
on her new husband

another argument unfolds the futon

……………………………………………………………. by W.F. Owen

at the height
of the argument the old couple
pour each other tea

The beetle I righted
flies straight into
a cobweb

……………………………..……. by George Swede

ceremony over
the bride unveils
her tattoo

family picnic
the new wife’s rump
bigger than mine

early spring walk
your hand
in my pocket

…………………………………………….. by roberta beary

This haiku collection is presented to celebrate the August 2007 marriage of Elizabeth and Barry.

Acknowledgments:
Roberta Beary: Simply Haiku; Modern Haiku
Yu Chang: Heron’s Nest; Upstate Dim Sum
Carolyn Hall: Frogpond;The Heron’s Nest
Laryalee Fraser: Shiki Kukai; Clouds Peak
David Giacalone: Frogpond; HSA Mem Antholgy
Peggy Lyles: To Hear the Rain (2002)
Pamela Ness: Raw NervZ
W.F. Owen: Frogpond; Bottle Rockets
George Swede: Almost Unseen (2000)
Michael Dylan Welch: Frogpond
Billie Wilson: Mayfly; Frogpond

– Ed Markowski: specially commissioned –