Haiku
by “Clear Dew” Ibuse

A cat on a leash
leads an older man along
from Ginkaku-ji.

“Clear Dew” Ibuse is a poet of Japan. Ginkaku-ji is a temple in northeastern Kyoto, Japan, a city of about 1,400,000.

~~~

A CDC Mis-take
Dr. Wes;ie Ubeca

The CDC says it mistakenly has posted that
coronavirus, via air, can travel farther than…
six feet. How much land does a man need? Is it but six feet?
They say again that covid-19 spreads primarily
upon large droplets an infected person coughs about,
or sneezes, even talking, spraying outward like a spout,
and ending in the mouths or noses of the near. Ha-choo!
resulting in the masking up and present six-foot rule.
And now as deaths surpass 200,000, one observes
protesting maskless groups may have incurred a second surge.

Dr. Weslie Ubeca (not a doctor) is a poet of medicine. Are 200,000 US deaths at the low end or high end of a lab-made disease from Wuhan, China, last year? Though over 31,000,000 have contracted the disease worldwide, over 23,000,000 have recovered from it.

~~~

A Trip to Greece
by Aedile Cwerbus

He sailed to Greece upon the winds of Rome—Vergilius—
in the pursuit of Homer’s odyssey and Iliad.
He met Augustus then in Athens, in 19 BC,
deciding soon thereafter to return to Italy.
He had been there revising his Aeneid epic po’m,
and now he was prepared to take his final journey home.
But on the way, near Megara, he visited a town,
and caught a fever there, some dread disease that brought him down.
He crossed the sea to Italy in a delirium,
and died when he achieved the harbour of Brindisium.

Aedile Cwerbus is a poet of Ancient Rome. Present day Athens has about 660,000, Megara has about 36,000, and Brindisi has a population of about 87,000.

~~~

Abel Once Said (in the 1820s)
by Euclidre Base
“Abel has left mathematicians enough to keep them busy for 500 years.”
—Charles Hermite (1822-1901)

“Cauchy is mad,” Abel once said with vim,
“there’s nothing that can be done about him;
although, right now, he is the only one
who knows how mathematics should be done.”

Euclidrew Base is a poet of mathematics. The Norwegian Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829) was one of the foremost mathematicians of the 19th century.

~~~

An Example of a Continuous, Nowhere Differentiable Function
by Euclidrew Base

Weierstrass in 1872 gave this example: f(x) = the sum from 0 to ∞ of bn cos (an px) for b < 1 and ab > 1 + 3/2p , that early fractal, a nowhere differentiable function that was also continuous, tactile.

Euclidrew Base is a poet of mathematics. The German Karl Weierstrass (1815-1897) was a noted 19th century mathematician.

~~~

RIP Roger Carel
by Claude I. S. Weber

Voice-over master Roger Carel quietly withdrew,
the dubber of a countless cast, a veritable zoo.
His voice was heard across French cinema for many years,
the Cheshire Cat, Ludwig Von Drake,, and other characters,
like Jetson’s Cosmo Spacely, Kermit. Rabbit, Piglet, Pooh,
like Asterix, and Babar’s Basil, and Kaa from Jungle Book,
like Pongo, Yogi Bear, C-3PO, Sir Hiss, Magoo,
like Chula the Tarantula, and Wally Gator too.
From Mickey to the Cricket, Jiminy, in Disney’s films.
his was a strange, ethereal, cartoonish, magic realm.

Claude I. S. Weber is a poet of France.

~~~

Of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
by Basil Drew Eceu

His life was as a ship wreck—Samuel Taylor Coleridge—
who, like his near contemporary Friedrich Hölderlin,
crashed into transcendental consciousness poetic’lly;
he heard a crystal bell on shore, when he was out at sea.
His sails flapping in the wind, his torn wings slapping it,
As Lamb expressed, archangel damaged but a little bit;
in dialogue with Wordsworth, lyric balladry his take,
the Sage of Highgate at the end who toasted William Blake;
around the whirl of Adm’ral Nelson at Trafalgar’s clash,
suspended disbelief in laudanum, sublime the splash.

Basil Drew Eceu is a poet of 19th century England. William Blake (1757-1827), Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834), and Charles Lamb (1775-1834) were noted figures of British history, Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) was a noted poet of German literature.

~~~

RIP Ruther Bader Ginsburg
by Brice U. Lawseed
“Every now and then it helps to be a little deaf…”
—Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg died today at eighty-seven years,
a life of service lost within a roar of hate and fears.
How strange it is to see a Justice castigated so
by members of her party, when there should be shows of woe.
How strange it is see the passing of a single soul
eliciting such virulence, such frenzy on patrol.
How strange it is to see her life as just political,
as if she had no other worth, and there was nothing more.
How strange it is to live upon this whirling world’s form
in sunny, warm September, as if one were in a storm.

Brice U. Lawseed is a poet of Washington DC.

~~~

Her Period Was Blue
by Red Was Iceblue

Like a blue Buddha in a floral bonnet, she appeared,
an avatar of Aphrodite, flowers o’er her ear.
Evincing classical serenity, her eyes were closed,
and unconcerned for worldly things, so peacefully composed.
Within her brain, in pools of blue, the diverse divers dove,
like swingers on a swung trapeze, like swimmers in a cove.
Like a pat singer, post Picasso, pausing from her art,
her period was blue amid a myriad of stars.
Her face was cool. She was not blind. Her mind was open wide.
Above her chin, her lips, he nose, she contemplated life.

Red Was Iceblue is a poet of Modern, Postmodern and New Millennial art. Pat Singer is a contemporary artist.