The Mirror and the Gateway
This grove, ‘The Mirror and the
Gateway’ introduces two separate ways in which the Great
Master has extended the haiku form. In the Mirror
(originally called the sandwich) the first and last lines are the
same—or are they? There is the sound, the sense and
the characters that represent them. Terimati sees the haiku
half reflected in a mirror, or in clear water, such that one side
reflects, and sometimes distorts, the other. The Gateway
describes the Haiku Gateway Processor, the idea of substitution
of extended characters into haiku—thus / can render the three syllables ‘forward
slash’. See also the notes. As these are forms
not themes, some are serious while others are witty or
frivolous. Similarly, a few mirrors and extra characters
will be found in other groves.
1. Seventeen Mirrors
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- Melancholy ode
Written on greengrocer’s bill
—Melon, cauli owed
- Entity Models
Much less fun than Page 3 Girls
n titty models
- Doc, you meant Asian
Medics need professional
Documentation?
- Daily occurrence
The gardener visiting
—Dahlia, currants
- When I lie in bed
She just doesn’t believe me
—When I lie in bed
- Great German leader
Bismarck. Herr Fischer Diskau
Great German lieder
- Give the man the floor
For God’s sake! He screws up. For-
give the man the flaw
- Crocodiles et al
Could not scare Albert, until
Crocodiles ate Al
- The long winding road
Many strange characters met
—The long Winding road
- I met a haiku
Metaphors and syllables—
A meta haiku
- Oh please bee, leave me
I’m allergic to your sting
Oh please believe me
- Clerical habits
Obstruct less spiritual
Clerical habits
- One egg is enough
For a Frenchman, it seems, for
One egg is un oeuf
- Because I love you
It’s time for the bridal suite
—Because I love you
This, without changing the sounds or the
putative title of ‘stable relationships’, can
be:
Because I love you
It’s time for the bridle, sweet
Big horse—I love you
- Dodi is to Di
So close, that, right beside her
Dodi is to die
- Illegal substance
Is a risk to birds of prey
—Ill eagle substance
- Henry Kissinger
Has a wife—who really likes
Henry kissing her
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2. Seventeen More Mirrors
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- So nugatory
Toffee-nosed Conservatives
So nougat Tory
- I’d a down on her
Smothered her with a duvet
—Eiderdown on her
- End of peer review
Comedians, all of them
End of pier revue
- We ought to make love
We’ve been apart all summer
We autumn ache, love
- ‘All you need is love’
Has a bakery version
‘All you knead is loaf’
- Witches’ prophecy
Upsets Macbeth. He’s not sure
Which is prophecy
- Aiding and abetting
Gambling dens in South Yemen
—Aden and a betting
- Dubai, effendi,
Is the place for purchases
—D’you buy, effendi?
- What is it to be,
Our philosophy question?
—What is it, To Be?
- Sage, and thyme to rue
Herbs symbolic, time to be
Sage and time to rue
- Man with a mission
Fallout contaminated
Man with emission
- Your innate weakness
Will cause you to wet the bed
Urinate weakness
- Fearful symmetry
Throughout the ghostly graveyard
—Fearful cemetery
- ‘I’m in de Nile’
The Arab cried. ‘No, I’m not,
—I’m in denial’
- He had a wee cough
Scottish hypochondriac
He had a week off
- Morbid interest
In auction of the death mask
—More bid interest?
- Onomatopoeia
Murmur, murmur, Lord Archer
Honour matter, peer
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3. Rotating Mirrors
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- Spring in the air. Lambs
Graze. Then, as mothers admire
Lambs spring in the air
- All you need is love
The good words of John Lennon
Love is all you need
- Time and crime again
He is up before the courts
Crime—and time again
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4. The Gateway
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- West Indies b@smen
_@ Headingley
Small # of runs
- HGP’s mission:
To enforce prohibition.
You can’t speak easy
- Candles in brackets
Beside the waning firelight
Need to put coal on
Is almost poetry but the HGP gives
[Candles]
Beside the waning firelight
Need to put :
- You see, I owe you
For you see before I see
Aye, you are too wise
The HGP
‘maxicrushes’ this to
- UCIOU
4UCB4IC
IURYY
- Subjects ,nd go
Some plain, some /, low &
-omena.
- Ye@s, 10nyson, £,
They write of grief & $
~ cows come home
- Ke@s and Ye@s, poets
Who burn words into my heart
But why don’t they rhyme?
- Waltzing ma~
Please come a waltzing with me
~ cows come home
- If a piece of wire
Joins the Jewish religion
Is it ^ed?
- Fixing shelf [ ]
Making a right # of it
Please give us an &
- Please give us an &
Making a right # of it
< competent
- Please give us an &
Making a right # of it
≠ to task
- The following has been through the
American version of the HGP:
.ic verse
of ?able pan#
–ed off by our 2.
- Two characters fight
/ & \
Duel symmetry
- Chicken xxx road
2C if grass is
greener
On the other side
- 4tnum & Mason
& Harrods r famous 4
Food & such
- Sierra Le1
Now has ;ial
St@us it appears
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5. …And its Bars
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- In the HGP
(Haiku Gateway Processor)
Are there any bars?
- One a five | gate
And one a seven | gate
All else should be |red.
- Rivals, sick of Gates
And suspicious of Cartels,
End up in bars, mates
- Terimati grows
Like moss—even like seaweed
Why are changes barred?
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