Interstitial

I had started working on this book long before I finished it, even before I started my 3rd book, but I felt the need to switch gears, once I emerged from my 2016 election-induced depression, so I set this old book aside until 2020. During the Covid-19 pandemic in the USA (our first social distancing mandates in spring), I was inspired to return focus to this old project, scrapping one poem which the pandemic made feel inappropriate and adding 2 new ones relevant to pandemic times. I also decided to use external icons (with subscription-based permission) from The Noun Project, saving me a ton of stress and time that had accompanied previous self-illustration efforts. It was more fun to work on just words & design, while also getting the pop (& additional context) of some nice images.

Interstitial was first self-published in spring of 2020. It's my 4th book of haikus and contains 16 poems. It's dedicated to making room for space.

Available (free for friends/family, 2$ for strangers).

Poems (2013-2020): Insomniac, A is for Androgyne, Inertia, Mail of Snail, Spargelwurst, Insider, The F-Word, Scythe Story, FTW!, Envision..., Brainiac, We are all connected, Not He/Him, Ally = Anti-Bully, Solarcity, Mind at Rest

While I feel most of the poems stand on their own, I feel some might benefit from context:

A is for Androgyne / Not He/Him: both of these were attempts to describe the experience of being androgyne (somewhere in the middle of man / woman and masculine / femine); I'm not sure either is totally successful (the concept/experience may be too complex for haiku), but I like the way the words/sounds turned out so decided to include them.
Inertia, Mail of Snail: both of these were written around 2014-15, long before the Covid-19 pandemic, but they seem to fit pandemic social distancing times quite well.
Spargelwurst: the title is a sort of a cross-lingual pun. "Spargel" is German and specifically refers to a white asparagus popular around Netherlands and Germany in late spring. My partner and I were traveling in 2012 and saw this almost everywhere, but found it quite disgusting. It appears phallic, has the rubbery consistency of asparagus, but the taste of used chewing gum. I learned that this "delicacy" is created by covering the aspargus fields so that they don't photosynthesize and thus don't turn green (nor gain any flavor). "Wurst" is German for meat (e.g., bratwurst) and spargel looks like a hot dog or sausage (and is also served wrapped in meat sometimes), so "wurst" seemed a great way to update the word, making to a pun with the English word "worst." The last line of this poem (purity most foul) is a reference to the unnecessary whitening of something that was better in color and also to its popularity in formerly Nazi territory.
The F-Word: the word is "feminism" which is still misunderstood and avoided or demonized; even some women disavow it (while at the same time expressing their support forequality). Feminism is nothing but the belief that women are not inferior to men and deserve equity.
Scythe Story: this is about death and how it overshadows everything, but also makes life precious.
FTW!: "FTW" is internet slang with various meanings, most commonly "For the Win!" or "Fuck the what?"; I was thinking of the former, but the latter works also. This poem is about sometimes a severe critique or dressing-down can actually help people grow, even if it feels painful, harsh or unfair at the moment.
Brainiac: this one may seem off-theme, but fits if you consider the gap between intention and language (e.g., the cofveve gaffe), but also LOTUS is a kind of an airhead.
Solarcity: this one is straightforward in meaning, but to clarify the title, I was thinking of Solar-electricity, but Solar-city works too.It has a nice counter-resonance Scythe Story (as both deal with darkness and light, but in opposite ways).

Want more poems? See my Pretty Paper Cuts.

Haikus on Paper: Overview

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