#104: Lunes for the Loon

Today’s poem is a variation on the Japanese Haiku, but instead of counting syllables, 5-7-5, we count words, 3-5-3. A lune can be, like a haiku, a single one stanza poem, or lunes can be strung together to form a longer poem. For no better reason than for the sound of it (which is as sound a reason as any), I have chosen a brief meditation on the word “loon.”

Lunes for the Loon

I

You’re a bird,
a swimming, diving, wild bird,
and noisy, too.

An entire section
of Walden written for you,
Thoreau following close.

Hide and seek,
a game childlike Henry plays,
you laugh, dive.

You elude him
entirely, now ahead, now behind,
disappear in rain.

II

You’re a nut,
crazy, off your rocker, bonkers,
over the edge,

off the deep
end, around the bend, a
certifiable goof, genius,

you are misunderstood,
marching to the beat of
a different drummer,

like the bird,
loon of a feather, you
laugh at us

as we try
to chase you down, enclose
you in cages.

You defy us
as well you should; sing
to the moon.