Poetry prompts are big on Bluesky. And one of them (the word “tour”) inspired me to write about something I’ve never written about before: touring with the Dallas Symphony way back in 1970.
So here’s both a limerick and a haiku about that experience.
Just imagine an orchestra tour
Via a bus. It was tough to endure:
Two long months on the road,
Bad hotels, our abode…
And no Net, so for boredom, no cure!
Traveled via bus
on 2-month orchestra tour–
Played oboe … and chess.
Flutist misses cue.
Conductor settles the score.
Time to face music.
*****
Botoxified face,
once intelligent with age,
now frozen wasteland.
*****
(Face prompt from Theme Thursday)
Symphony of black,
my uniform for decades —
stage no longer mine.
*****
Harmonics converge
in a dissonant parade
of the marching bands.
*****
(Thanks for the uniform prompt.)
Nursing nostalgia,
the tribute bands play covers —
relive what wasn’t.
*****
The injured cellist,
forced to bow out of concerts,
retires her bow.
*****
The big bands play swing —
old couples dance joyously,
then reclaim their canes.
*****
Three childhood friendships —
treasured, instrumental —
piano, oboe, flute.
*****
(The first haiku was inspired by Writer’s Island’s tribute theme. The fourth haiku was inspired by Monday Memories’ friendship theme.)
String quartet concert
missing one violinist—
time to improvise.
*****
Cruising musician
garners Carnegie Hall gig—
fantasy at sea.
*****
Distracted jazzer
misplaces his melodies—
loses audience.
****
Clueless conductor
hurls baton at oboist—
finally a cue.
*****
Billy Joel said:
We Didn’t Start The Fire.
Maybe we need to.
*****
(My first and third haiku were inspired by The Writer’s Island improvise prompt. My second haiku was inspired by Haiku Wednesday’s fantasy prompt. My late addition 5th haiku was inspired by Sunday Scribblings’ fire prompt.)
I feel (and share) EW’s Michael Slezak’s rage over the American Idol judges’ performance last night.
So what are we both so angry about? I sum it up in my American Idol Review haiku:
An “A for for effort”
To Gokey from the judges?
An F for standards.
Update: Now I’m really angry! Just as I feared, American Idol booted Allison Iraheta instead of Danny Gokey. Talk about unfair! The only good part is we were spared an encore rendition of Danny’s infamous final note.
Mad Kane (Madeleine Begun Kane) is a writer, musician, and "recovering lawyer." She won the Robert Benchley Society Award For Humor and enjoys writing limericks, song parodies, and current events haiku.
You can email her at madkane@madkane.com, visit her political humor blog, or stop by her home page.
