open sky :: SAMVAAD | 12th June

Vandana Parashar
Jun 12, 2022
1 min read

hosts: Sanjuktaa Asopa & Vandana Parashar

blood moon calling pork pig beef cow

----P.H. Fischer

(Failed Haiku, Volume 7, Issue 78)

댓글 14개

Iffah Peerzada

2022년 6월 26일

We humans do have a tendency to use fanciful words to cover-up our crimes. It's a conscious denial of our guilt. Just another form of lying. If we don't want our hands dirty, we shouldn't play in the mud to begin with..

I am always surprised by the power that words can have, even though stirring words are no starnger to me.

Before I read Peter's comment on the meaning of this monoku, I had no idea of it's depth. But when I read it again with a new understanding, I could feel it's echo....

Amazing poem!

P. H. Fischer

2022년 6월 13일

My heartfelt thanks to Vandana and Sanjuktaa for selecting my poem. Thanks also for the comments here.

I was asked to provide a bit of backstory on the inspiration for writing this poem.

This monoku is the concluding poem of a haibun that appears in the latest issue of Failed Haiku. It is probably the most "political" poem I've written (although as Thomas Mann once said, "everything is political"). I wrote it and the accompanying haibun, as I recall, after reflecting on society's silent agreements and how we tend to hide behind euphemistic language for our dirty deeds. During times of war, for example, we say "collateral damage" instead of "slain women and children innocently going about their day." We…

Billie Dee

2022년 6월 17일

답글 상대:

Mulling over this poem the last few days... I remember reading the original haibun on FH and thinking the ku might be even more powerful as a stand-alone piece. Indeed, this post has confirmed that notion for me.

Fischer's monoku is such a punch in the gut! It's more powerful than Any PETA diatribe I've heard.

My late poet-friend Steve Kowit once wrote, "For livestock, everyday is Auschwitz." That simple statement branded itself on my mind. I could no longer pass the butcher shop without thinking about it. And here it is again---hot and tragic, irrefutably true.

Thank you, Vandana, for posting this. A good example of "Show don't tell."

-----Billie

Billie Dee

2022년 6월 13일

...an then we wrap it in plastic; grimly powerful monoku.

Robert Kingston

2022년 6월 13일

stunned into silence…

the deathly thud

of a cow

Kala Ramesh

2022년 6월 13일

blood moon calling pork pig beef cow We have never told our children that we are serving 'pig' or 'cow' to them - they might feel it disgusting. Human beings, give fancy names to all animal products & this poem is all about that. I think 'blood moon' is just right. Am I anywhere close to your intent, Fischer?

Strong poem.