Haiku 59

Saturday morning:
The haute bourgeoisie strolls out
To get its coffee

*******

(after seeing an "Obama for America" sticker on an SUV parked in a bus stop zone)

Your righteous thinking
Does not count for more than your
Unrighteous doing

Haiku 58

Even after lunch
Many buildings resemble
Slices of white cake

Haiku 57

Songs of fleeting time:
Yet we want them sung to us
In ripe, supple tones

*******

My shabby raincoat:
It won't last another year;
Perhaps one more month?

*******

A breeze makes the leaves
Dance; the light makes the shadows
Dance; I see them both

Haiku 56

Lush Lounge flashes red
Neon against black windows
Empty morning street

Haiku 55

David Beckham's bulge
Eye-level on each kiosk
Shoppers walk on by

*******

White bright light of noon
Shadowless on the water
Gulls swoop on garbage

Haiku 54

Waiting for the rain
Umbrellas sprout like mushrooms
Runners dashing by


(As will sometimes happen, this is a week when I may not have computer access every day, in which case I will just post that day's haiku when I next have access.)

Haiku 53

Here we go again
But I just did the dishes!
Sweeping before rain

Haiku 52

Worm in from the rain
Dried to death on my carpet
You kept on crawling

Haiku 51

Beggar's shopping cart
Crammed with papers and old bags
Those things are his home

*******

Last week's bare branches
Gemmed with buds and small pale leaves
Traffic whizzes by

fun stuff I'm probably going to miss

There seems to be a critical mass of interesting stuff I’m most likely going to miss in the next couple of weeks, thanks to previous commitments or general exhaustion, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of what's being offered. Some of this is stuff I’ve wanted to see since I first heard about it, like the new Swan Lake at the San Francisco Ballet or Sofia Gubaidulina’s residence at the San Francisco Symphony (I’m hearing at least one of these concerts, but I might miss the first one and the chamber performance), so too bad for my poor planning and poverty generally.

The Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble is performing live music to experimental films tomorrow night, Friday February 20, at Artists' Television Access at 992 Valencia Street. I heard Dubowsky's Eisenhower Address last fall and was really impressed by it and would love to hear it again. Go see what he does with Genet, Jarman, and company.

The excellent local chorus Volti is presenting another intriguing program chockfull of world premieres, at St Mark’s (2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley) on Friday February 27 and at St Gregory of Nyssa (500 De Haro Street, San Francisco) on Saturday February 28. If you too can't make these performances, you can always go to their website and buy their CDs.

The California Symphony is presenting a new orchestral work, White Lies for Lomax (as in Alan Lomax), by their Young Composer in Residence, Mason Bates, who also has a work coming up with the San Francisco Symphony later this season. Also on the program is the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with a young soloist, Stefan Jackiw, and the Brahms 4. That’s Sunday March 8 and Tuesday March 10 at the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

And the next Other Minds Festival starts Thursday March 5 and continues for the next two days at Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (3200 California Street at Presidio).

So go, defy the Republican reactionaries by spending what money you have to support the arts, and enjoy. Tell me what I'm missing.