Haiku for ’07

The good thing about being part of the Puro Pedo Magazine project is that it gets me working on writing that’s neither for my blog nor for classes. Weird, I know. I’ve always had it in the back of my head that I’d like to be a writer, but never done anything about it aside from take a class, read a book on the subject, and go to graduate school where I’m forced to research, think and write.

Thanks to Puro Pedo, I’ve been writing haiku again, something I did daily for the first half of 2005 (remember that project?). We’re planning to include Chicano haiku from readers in the next issue.

I wrote more than 30 today… 31 to be exact.

We love Chuck Taylor’s
Oh, simple, canvas tenís
Such a timeless sole

Chicano Studies
Classes where we’re all experts
But nobody reads

Middle class raza
Invade East Los eateries
Men reek of cologne

A poem recipe:
Equal parts caló, Spanglish
And Nahuatl to taste

His deep, dark secret?
On more than one occasion,
He’s shopped at Wal-Mart

Chilango rockers
Slow to produce new album
Yet still draw huge crowds

Still don’t understand
Obsession with Morrissey
I’m not from East Los

Cinco de mayo
Sponsored by beer companies
Ignored by Raza

Rule: never admit
You grew up in the suburbs
Teasing will ensue

La Ugly Betty
Lacks power, respect, works hard
Yup, she’s Mexican

6 thoughts on “Haiku for ’07

  1. Those are some great Haikus, one of those really, really captures my thoughts! :) The Moz is popular because he’s deep, honest, and not afraid to let his guard down, or so I’ve heard, I would never listen to such sentimental claptrap, no, never!
    The boy with the nopal in his side, EL CHAVO!

  2. MOZ!!! it’s the hair.

    I saw a scholar give a presentation on moz and his connections to chican@s at a conference at UCSB. it was cool. working class, English colonization of Ireland, Irish nationalism. the scholar drew connections all the way back to richie valens. watch or read Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments. There’s a famous line where Jimmy is trying to convince his mates to form a soul band, and he breaks down the class situation for them in their poor northern Dublin community. In the movie he says, “The Irish are the blacks of Europe.” In the book it’s not so politically correct. But I always thought, they’re more like the Chicanos of Europe.

    all of this intellectual screen of course is to hide that in the end, moz simply makes me wanna cry, like a good tearful belting of volver volver volver, or sabor a mi…

    dang. it’s been some tough holidays. moz would TOTALLY understand… :)

    anywayz cindylu keep up the writing!

  3. Pingback: Reporting from the front lines of the Mission District « Rio Yañez

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