Less is More

This post was originally slated for 9/11/2013

 Haiku – A Japanese lyric or verse having three unrhymed lines of 5,7, and 5 syllables invoking an aspect of nature or seasons.  A poem written in this form.

American Heritage College Dictionary

Hotep,

Today (9/11/2013) marks the 12^th anniversary of worse terrorist attack, on US soil, in American history.  So it’s only right that I begin this post by paying tribute to the victims of 9/11 and their families.  This tragedy was a horrific image of our country being blindsided by the opposition to world peace.

Skies witness man’s works

The opposite of world peace

Towers fall from skies.

An American tragedy never forgotten.  Word is bond!!

For the 2^nd week in a row, Ms. Kelly Lennox played host to my creative writing class.  She’s a poet who introduced our class to various works written by Etheridge Knight.  He was known for using the haiku style of writing to express his pain with drug addiction and racism.  

Now, before today, I couldn’t tell a haiku from tofu.  Both are foreign to me.  Na mean?  Ms. Lennox challenged me to create a haiku about something displeasing to me.  I had all day to come up with the haiku expressing my displeasure for the horrific acts of 9/11.  But I only had 10 minutes of class time to come up with this:

The Bing

Face between spaces

Beings behind bars rain bombs

Steel gauges Man’s redemption.

In this piece, I chose to use an aspect of nature living within a cage.  ‘The Bing’ represents the confinement within the prison.  It’s an experience that can prove to be subhuman.  There’s a cage on the showers.  There’s a cage in the dayroom.  There are multiple cages to accommodate outside recreation.  But none of these cages have any relevance without a face between it’s spaces. 

Some beings choose to exercise when occupying a cage.  Others choose to get better acquainted with the occupants in the cages nearest to them.  Then there are others who utilize the cage as a weapon.  Food, urine and even feces have been launched through the spaces in these cages.  Real talk.

The steel surrounds my existence.  My sink and commode are made of stainless steel.  My tabletop and shelf are steel as well.  Even the foundation where I rest is steel.  The cage will either redeem or regress a man’s character.  A tangible used to gauge an intangible.  Feel me?

I was told that most haikus go untitled.  I chose to leave the 9/11 haiku untitled because I want the viewers to see exactly what they saw 12 years ago, today.  But, ‘The Bing’ is my person experience.  Ya heard?

After today’s lesson, I’m convinced that poetry is no more than a writer’s expression.  It doesn’t become poetic until someone else reads it.  And for the record; the cage hasn’t regressed this Mann’s character.   My redemption comes through the hands of my Creator.  Not the hands of man.

Nuff said,

MannofStat

Copyright © 2013 by Leroy Elwood Mann