Thanksgiving prayer

Thanks God
for gift of life
and blessings we enjoy.
Please help us to realize that
hatred
only
begets hatred;
but love engenders love
if we give it a chance to bloom
once more.

Runaway Son

One dreary autumn morning I went to the YMCA for my twice-weekly exercise. There staring at me from the door was a big poster with a boy's picture. It is a wanted sign with the parents offering a monetary reward for the safe return of their 14-year old runaway son.

I was so touched by this sad incident which kept haunting me that later that day, while waiting for lunch at my favorite eatery, I wrote these poems at the back of the sales receipt. This is an example of a poem that wrote itself.

First I tried a haiku:

a broken bat lies
in his near empty room
their runaway son

but I needed to expand it a little bit more, so I wrote a tanka:

autumn chill
a broken bat
and busted ball crowd
his near empty room
their runaway son

LOS ANGELES FIRESTORMS

Yesterday, north and south of Los Angeles, CA was beset by bush fires which burned houses and properties. Many people were ordered to be evacuated to safe places, including their livestock. The forest fire is still going on in some areas, undoubtedly abetted by the cyclical Santa Ana winds. As ashes cover part of my car and driveway this morning, I penned these sequence of haiku while eating breakfast at my favorite fast food place.


she gingerly picks
the charred remains
of her Barbie doll

rain of ash covers
the Los Angeles basin
egged by Santa Ana wind

no picky fire
humble abode
nor stately house

feisty firefighters
fight fires with their lives
we salute you friends

tales of survival
abound with the
homeless people

we pray with them
for hope and strength
to carry on

VETERAN'S DAY

marching band
he pats the Purple Heart
over his feeble heart

veteran's park
he feeds a one-legged bird
from his wheelchair

end of parade
he gazes at the birds
flying to sunset

Vic Gendrano