Monthly Archives: December 2009

Polar Bear is Not a Dip: Memories and Green Lake Polar Bear Poetry Plunge (includes Video)

It was, I think
New Year’s Day, 1971
When I stood on the brink
Of a frozen, sub-zero Lake Michigan.

I, then just a teen,
Dove in for the lark
Didn’t know what it’d mean
On the shores of Doctor’s Park.

Poetry Polar Bear Dip - CyranoWriter.com/David Kuhns, Green Lake, WANow, decades have past,
And I, a much older, wiser man
Have returned again, at last,
To take the plunge while I still can.

So why do I again come freezing
On a cold, sunny winter’s day
With nose running, lungs wheezing?
Because I have something to say!

It’s life’s lesson learned taking the plunge
Decades past, at 10 below
Run in, leap, dive, lunge!
Don’t take it slow! Go. Go! GO!

Here is the video of this poem
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xXVmZpkXvw&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6]

Here is the video of the entire group:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxzdkfs_tXo&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6]

Haiku Flirting Back And Forth: Romantic IMprov Haiku

In November 22 and December 1, 2009, I had this on-line haiku exchange with a 30-something Seattle woman. (Hers is labeled “Report this”, and I italics hers and bold mine

Because you opined
Haiku is hot; I agree.
I open your sky.

Nov 22, 2009 – 6:05pm
My sky’s open…yes
Always….raining smiles and laughs
Those gray clouds beware!
Report this

Nov 22, 2009 – 10:50pm
As we flirt gladly,
rhythmned rhymes flow like spring rain,
we ask us: now what?

Nov 23, 2009 – 2:25am
Um, we haven’t rhymed.
And two stanzas on the sky
Constitute a flirt?
Report this

Nov 23, 2009 – 10:03am
Slant rhymes often count.
If flirts can be winks of eyes,
so can stanza’d skys!

Nov 23, 2009 – 10:14am
Ah! Clever you are!
Rhyming, winks, and the haiku
But, are we flirting??
Report this

Nov 23, 2009 – 10:19am
Flirting depends on
how you take it, what you make
it out to be. See?

Nov 23, 2009 – 10:21am
Is it mere flirting?
Or passions more deeply felt?
Haiku touches hearts.

Nov 23, 2009 – 10:26am
Today my haiku
Is wearing on left brain
I’ve a cold! No fun!
Report this

Nov 23, 2009 – 10:27am
Is wearing on my* left brain

See? Told you I wasn’t feeling well. Not only am I not very imaginative today, I can’t count to 7!
Report this


Nov 25, 2009 – 12:56am
Hello to you. Meet
for poetry haiku slam
Richard Hugo house?

Nov 25, 2009 – 7:56am
Embarrass myself?
Publicly? My lame haiku
should just stay online.
Report this

Nov 25, 2009 – 2:24pm
Embarrassment? Mine!
I perform alone on stage.
You, awed, stand and watch.

Nov 25, 2009 – 3:24pm
Awed? Or perhaps Eww-ed??
I’m kidding, of course. I’m nice!
You’re a performer?
Report this

Nov 25, 2009 – 6:20pm
She said I perform.
I maintain it’s just my norm
to bring her pleasure.

Nov 25, 2009 – 6:48pm
Oh my! Who’s flirting??
You are turning the haiku
Into the sly-ku! 😉
Report this


Nov 25, 2009 – 7:23pm
Join me late tonight:
Richard Hugo House, Cap Hill.
I’ll rhyme you a thrill.

Nov 25, 2009 – 7:27pm
Sorry, (you guy), can’t
My pity party’s right now
I’m in for the night
Report this
Nov 25, 2009 – 7:59pm
Obviously I’m
not with haiku as red hot
as I at first thought.

Nov 25, 2009 – 8:03pm
It’s not you, it’s me
First holiday, post divorce
my kids with their dad
Report this

Nov 25, 2009 – 8:07pm
You have my phone number:
XYZ- blach blah blah blah.
Cap Hill: no excuse

Nov 25, 2009 – 8:15pm
You guy, I’m sorry
But tonight’s not my night for
A blind haiku date

Seriously, today I have turned away people I actually know in real life to sit here in the empty house in the dark! But I thank you for the offer.
Report this

Nov 27, 2009 – 1:04am
Since it’s now no longer the day before, nor Thanksgiving Day itself, and since I only made it through the first round of the Haiku d’Etat Poetry Slam (losing to the featured artist from Detroit, who was also the eventual winner), meaning that I only got to read 3 poems, how about meeting at, say, Kerry or Discovery Park, where you can sit on a bench and I can perform 20 or more Haiku
for you.
That you turned down people you knew should make me feel better?
Of course you’d turn THEM down.
They know you.
You know them, and that they’ll say:
“You’ll be okay”.
“Things will be alright.”
“I know how you feel”
and other well-meaning words meant to help,
but don’t.

That’s why my option was better:
Someone you don’t know.
Someone who doesn’t know you.
Someone with whom the only POSSIBLE connection and understanding is
if he, too,
once (or more than once) sat alone,
as his father did after his mother left him,
eating hot dogs and drinking beef boullion
(so called “Root Beer Soup” so I would eat it, also),
alone on Thanksgiving.
Alone in his space once filled with laughter and silly movies and noshing on Thanksgiving leftovers and bored games and fun stories,
where now only echoes of memories
make sad, whimpering noises in the corners
of his soul.
That alone.

Come with me
and listen to poetry.
Haiku-L.

Because loneliness is a choice,
not a condition.

Nov 27, 2009 – 1:13am
Wow. I’ve told you that this week I’ve been both physically and mentally sick and you still persist I meet you listen to you read your poetry. Thanks for asking how I’m doing, by the way! Obviously you are doing quite well based on your gumption, or maybe too much root beer soup. That said, I am going to pass on being one of your audience members. Good luck with your competition!
Report this

Nov 27, 2009 – 10:20am
If you think that
1) I persist, and
2) I persist in meeting you and
3) I persist in meeting you so you can listen to me read my poetry,
then you ere, at least in 2 of the 3.
a) I persist, but only because I was enjoying the reparte’ in Haiku, and I thought you were, too.
b) To persist in requesting to meet you, and especially in having you hear my poetry, is 100% in error, UNLESS you consider it an attempt to be a nice guy, to invite you to do something which might have gotten you out your loneliness or isolation. I’m not so vain to think that my poetry, nor my presence, is a great cure, but I DO have enough life experience to know that, if I’m in a funk, lonely, etc., there is little better than for someone to contact me and invite me to do something totally off the wall… even if I don’t know that person.

Meeting people, especially after being in a relationship for more than 2 decades, is an interesting and sometimes difficult exercize. I have not mastered the techniques of being smooth, suave, sophisticated. In fact, I sometimes come across as being persistant, over-zealous, and intense. I never mean anyone any harm by it: I only seek to do good, and to have people enjoy themselves and be happy.
And yes, I do have enough gumption, experience and self-awareness to know that, 90% of the time, once people meet me and “hang out” with me, they enjoy themselves and feel better. Maybe that’s egotistical to some people. . To me, it’s just the way I was raised, a way of life: Go through life trying to uplift and help and support others. Make someone happy.

That said, I have not yet mastered the art of saying exactly the right thing 100% of the time (for example, asking “How are you doing?” did cross my mind to ask, but, considering how I feel why my kids aren’t around for any holiday, not something I would ever WANT to be asked, so was not something I elected TO ask.

Obviously, what I perceive as being an attempt to help someone be happy and have a good experience … is NOT what you experienced. And for that, I am, from the bottom of my heart, truly sorry. I don’t know what type of self-absorbed, selfish men you have met previously, but please believe me when I tell you that I never intended to be one of them, and that I only wrote you, invited you, and persisted with you, with the best of good intentions.

Thank you for the Haiku inspiration (you are an excellent partner!); thank you, also, for yet another lesson learned in the fine art of online “getting to know you”. Again, I’m truly sorry for any hurt I may have caused.

Nov 27, 2009 – 11:14am
You’ve caused me no hurt
But when a girl says she’s sick
Please reply, “Get well.”
Report this

Nov 27, 2009 – 9:43pm
Get well!


Nov 27, 2009 – 10:35pm
Ah, my haiku friend
I’m feeling better, thank you
Resting’s a good thing
Report this

Nov 28, 2009 – 1:07pm
When a woman says
“I will pass on you; good luck!”
Does that mean she’s through?

Nov 28, 2009 – 4:12pm
I passed on one night
Had I passed on only you
I’d not write this note
Report this

Nov 28, 2009 – 4:15pm
Your haiku rhymed! Nice!
My heart sings with happiness:
You stayed; didn’t pass.

Nov 28, 2009 – 4:23pm
What? I rhymed with you??
Open I am for new friends
Won’t pass up on that
Report this
Nov 28, 2009 – 5:06pm
Only open for
friends? Nothing more? Potential
of something like Wow?!?!

Nov 28, 2009 – 5:10pm
Hope is potential
My life is all about it
*Chemistry* makes wow
Report this

Nov 28, 2009 – 5:25pm
Here’s hoping then, when
we finally meet, it will
be sweet. Explosive.


Nov 28, 2009 – 5:44pm
I cannot predict
Explosions because I’m not
a love terrorist
Report this

Nov 28, 2009 – 9:39pm
Truth? Looking for a
chemical reaction can
lead to getting burned.

Nov 28, 2009 – 9:56pm
You’re the one who said
Explosive. So you must be
thinking of love’s burns.
Report this

Nov 28, 2009 – 10:18pm
You are she who used
the word “Chemistry”, which
leads, true, to love’s burns.

Nov 28, 2009 – 10:26pm
Properly stocked lab:
Protective eye wear and coat
Keep those burns away
Report this
Nov 28, 2009 – 10:30pm
At last! A woman
freely speaks of protection!
Will she call me soon?

Nov 28, 2009 – 11:08pm
Literal I am
About the chemistry labs.
What were you thinking?
Report this

Nov 28, 2009 – 11:18pm
My thoughts? Wondering.
I’ve given phone numbering,
but you haven’t called me.

Nov 29, 2009 – 12:02am
Phone number? Really?
Honestly I should return
my father’s call first!!
Report this

Nov 30, 2009 – 9:43am
Best take care of him.
Fathers and mothers worry,
even when we’re old.
Nov 30, 2009 – 1:15pm
I’m not the old one!
You’re 10 years older than me
And 10 less my dad!!
Report this

Nov 30, 2009 – 4:45pm
I would say older,
but that is syllabiclly
too much for Haiku

Nov 30, 2009 – 4:54pm
Seventeen’s enough
In syllabic terms, that is
To say you’re older!
Report this

Dec 1 2009 – 6:43am
Does age matter?
I’ve been with women twenty
years younger. Keep up!

Dec 1, 2009 – 6:45am
The age-o-meter
is not a boast. Just sayin’
that I can keep up.