Good Modern Haiku

I stumbled across something surprisingly nice today: Did I Wake You? by Beth Lapides. It's a book of haiku that came out last year, and the first collection of haiku I've read that didn't make me utterly bored of nature by page three. In fact, on nearly every page is something I would read out loud to anyone who happened to be within suffering distance.

Some faves:

Blind man's entering
the Getty. To smell the oils?
Listen to watching?

*

Borders are too tight.
Belts are too tight. Breathing is
hard. Lips are too loose.

*

They're trying to clone
Jesus. Wouldn't he say we're
all Christ already?

*

Truth's got lies licked. Art's
got shlock blocked. But beauty's got
ugly up its ass.


She takes no liberties with the ol' 5-7-5 structure, throws in some bizarre and nifty internal rhyme, and there's a genuine little expectation-gap in every one. I love it. Light reading, but totally energizing.