Honolulu Haikus

My father, whose moniker was Metaphor Man during his summer stretches as a radio DJ for WBOR broadcasting out of Brunswick, ME,  recently posted a quite masterful Haiku on Facebook.

tomato hornworms
defecating on my plants
eradicated

ilovebutter / Flickr Creative Commons

I shall carry on the form with Hawaiian Islanders as my muse.

LifeSupercharger / Flickr Creative Commons

diminutive birds

flutter on and off islands

local chicks are big

 

Badass skindivers

four minutes - sixty feet deep

hunt, spear, clean,eat fish

The late, great Gene Higa

Those Haikus were rubbish, but as Jack Kerouac said about Haiku, you take two weeks just to whittle down your ideas into 17 syllables, which leaves me about 13 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes away from refined poetry. 


The point is that Hawaiian woman are indeed beautiful, but their breadth is broadly misrepresented in calendars and such. 

The other point is that dudes who go skin-diving are crazy tough. I met a brother of this dude's wife, who is Filipino-Hawaiian, and when he was in his prime he could stay under for more than four minutes just waiting for a big fish to come by. It's like deer hunting without breathing. Crazy shit. 

That dude also told me about this guy named Gene Higa (pictured above), who is now dead, but was apparently the best of the best when it came to spearfishing. He assured me there were tons of videos of him online, but all I could find was this obituary, which is pretty depressing. Will post a video if I find one. 


I will try to do better next time, heading to Maine via Seattle and Detroit beginning tonight at 9 (Hawaii time). 


-C