Haiku | “the geese ride the tide plump river”

January 14, 2016 by Peter Galen Massey

the geese ride easy / the tide plump river, answers / without a question

Posted in Haiku | Tagged haiku, Poems | 1 Comment

on February 15, 2016 at 5:40 pm | Reply Peter Galen Massey

Massey Grade: A+ or C-

Massey Comment: This is definitely a “Death or Glory” poem and you could call it “brilliant” or “a piece of crap” with almost equal reason. The haiku has two distinct parts. The first is purely descriptive but I think the descriptions are evocative, particularly the “plumpness” — that moment when the force of a rising tide pushing water upstream and the force of the river’s downstream flow are holding each other in balance. The second part talks about the essential mystery of all things. Why is this river — these geese — anything — here? The twist is, of course, that we are confronted with the clear answers and the questions are the mystery. Well. If you are a pure materialist, very popular in science these days, you would reject the whole poem because the geese are not “answers” to anything. There is no meaning. Only matter. No consciousness either, just interactions of matter so complex they “feel” like more than they are. I tend to be of a more cheerful if not more fanciful disposition. As for my final grade, most of the time I think A+ but sometimes I think C- and because I can’t quite make up my mind, I think the poem is the better for it.