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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.

Bonsai tree

1.  Seventeen Mirrors

  1. Melancholy ode
    Written on greengrocer’s bill
    —Melon, cauli owed
  2. Entity Models
    Much less fun than Page 3 Girls
    n titty models
  3. Doc, you meant Asian
    Medics need professional
    Documentation?
  4. Daily occurrence
    The gardener visiting
    —Dahlia, currants
  5. When I lie in bed
    She just doesn’t believe me
    —When I lie in bed
  6. Great German leader
    Bismarck.  Herr Fischer Diskau
    Great German lieder
  7. Give the man the floor
    For God’s sake!  He screws up.  For-
    give the man the flaw
  8. Crocodiles et al
    Could not scare Albert, until
    Crocodiles ate Al
  9. The long winding road
    Many strange characters met
    —The long Winding road
  10. I met a haiku
    Metaphors and syllables—
    A meta haiku
  11. Oh please bee, leave me
    I’m allergic to your sting
    Oh please believe me
  12. Clerical habits
    Obstruct less spiritual
    Clerical habits
  13. One egg is enough
    For a Frenchman, it seems, for
    One egg is un oeuf
  14. 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
  15. Dodi is to Di
    So close, that, right beside her
    Dodi is to die
  16. Illegal substance
    Is a risk to birds of prey
    —Ill eagle substance
  17. Henry Kissinger
    Has a wife—who really likes
    Henry kissing her
Bonsai tree
This winding pathway
Leads through sunshine and shadow
Round upon itself

2.  Seventeen More Mirrors

  1. So nugatory
    Toffee-nosed Conservatives
    So nougat Tory
  2. I’d a down on her
    Smothered her with a duvet
    —Eiderdown on her
  3. End of peer review
    Comedians, all of them
    End of pier revue
  4. We ought to make love
    We’ve been apart all summer
    We autumn ache, love
  5. ‘All you need is love’
    Has a bakery version
    ‘All you knead is loaf’
  6. Witches’ prophecy
    Upsets Macbeth.  He’s not sure
    Which is prophecy
  7. Aiding and abetting
    Gambling dens in South Yemen
    —Aden and a betting
  8. Dubai, effendi,
    Is the place for purchases
    —D’you buy, effendi?
  9. What is it to be,
    Our philosophy question?
    —What is it, To Be?
  10. Sage, and thyme to rue
    Herbs symbolic, time to be
    Sage and time to rue
  11. Man with a mission
    Fallout contaminated
    Man with emission
  12. Your innate weakness
    Will cause you to wet the bed
    Urinate weakness
  13. Fearful symmetry
    Throughout the ghostly graveyard
    —Fearful cemetery
  14. ‘I’m in de Nile’
    The Arab cried.  ‘No, I’m not,
    —I’m in denial’
  15. He had a wee cough
    Scottish hypochondriac
    He had a week off
  16. Morbid interest
    In auction of the death mask
    —More bid interest?
  17. Onomatopoeia
    Murmur, murmur, Lord Archer
    Honour matter, peer
Bonsai tree
Bonsai tree

3.  Rotating Mirrors

  1. Spring in the air.  Lambs
    Graze. Then, as mothers admire
    Lambs spring in the air
  2. All you need is love
    The good words of John Lennon
    Love is all you need
  3. Time and crime again
    He is up before the courts
    Crime—and time again
Bonsai tree

4.  The Gateway

  1. West Indies b@smen
    _@ Headingley
    Small # of runs
  2. HGP’s mission:
    To enforce prohibition.
    You can’t speak easy
  3. 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 :
  4. You see, I owe you
    For you see before I see
    Aye, you are too wise

    The HGP ‘maxicrushes’ this to

  5. UCIOU
    4UCB4IC
    IURYY
  6. Subjects ,nd go
    Some plain, some /, low &
    -omena.
  7. Ye@s, 10nyson, £,
    They write of grief & $
    ~ cows come home
  8. Ke@s and Ye@s, poets
    Who burn words into my heart
    But why don’t they rhyme?
  9. Waltzing ma~
    Please come a waltzing with me
    ~ cows come home
  10. If a piece of wire
    Joins the Jewish religion
    Is it ^ed?
  11. Fixing shelf [ ]
    Making a right # of it
    Please give us an &
  12. Please give us an &
    Making a right # of it
    < competent
  13. Please give us an &
    Making a right # of it
    ≠ to task
  14. The following has been through the American version of the HGP:

    .ic verse
    of ?able pan#
    ed off by our 2.
  15. Two characters fight
    / & \
    Duel symmetry
  16. Chicken xxx road
    2C if grass is greener
    On the other side
  17. 4tnum & Mason
    & Harrods r famous 4
    Food & such
  18. Sierra Le1
    Now has ;ial
    St@us it appears
Bonsai tree

5.  …And its Bars

  1. In the HGP
    (Haiku Gateway Processor)
    Are there any bars?
  2. One a five | gate
    And one a seven | gate
    All else should be |red.
  3. Rivals, sick of Gates
    And suspicious of Cartels,
    End up in bars, mates
  4. Terimati grows
    Like moss—even like seaweed
    Why are changes barred?
Bonsai tree
Little frog