Chiff & Fipple Presents:
Tinwhistle Haiku
edited by James Isaacs and Dale Wisely
3rd Annual Chiff & Fipple Haiku
Contest Entries, Part II
395a
The
old pond at dawn.
A high "D" pierces the calm
Patience nears an end
Judy
Crane
395b
Whistling
by the pond.
My wife grabs my five whistles;
Plop! Plop! Plop! Plop! Plop!
Jim
Stone (husband of 395a’s Judy Crane)
396
Taking a deep breath
I lift my new whistle and
banish misfortune.
Jim Stone
397
Connaughtman's Ramble
lets me sail on my Feadog
and soar in my heart.
398
L.E. McCullough,
the absolute best teacher
for learning to roll.
Karen Tlusty
398b
Sweet my
whistle sounds
Calling to the silent hills.
The breeze whispers back.
399
An air from my Clarke
As deer cry to each other
In the winter fields.
Melanie Ford
400
Whistles in the
mail
Coming to my humble home
I can hardly wait
401
Please Santa I want
A low D whistle under
My tall Christmas tree
402
Shreiks from my high G
Pierce the winters' bleak darkness
Like a blinding light
403
If whistles were beer
I would be drunk all the time
Twelve-step anyone?
404
My love life's gone South
It's hard to be intimate
With whistle in mouth
405
Obsessive? Not
me!
I MUST have all those whistles
New shoes? Luxury!
406
Dulcet melodies
floating in the winters' air
like Celtic snowflakes
John Hendrickson
407
underneath fingers
red on rolled wet sheet tin grows
rust of celtic songs
408
whistle
a slip jig
tap a doodle tap a doo
blow a dance I do
409
haiku
contest good
chance come only once a year
win Joanie Madden!
410
whistle
drips a song
sliding dancers slip and fall
saliva on shoes
411
cylindrical,
holed,
fippled, painted merry red,
waiting, breathlessly
412
saw
the best minds of
my generation destroyed--
whistle obsessions
413
silent
fall branches
the ash explodes in juncos
tin whistles flying
Mark Kissel
414-416
Generations
fipple tweaking done
generation C in tune?
wait to redrill holes
holes now way to big
emergency room visit
extricate digits
wash off iodine
to salvage or toss aside?
add to pile of D's
417-420
seasonal variations
Falling leaves float by
soft notes drifting among them
whistle with the wind
Wind grows cold with snow
warmth is found within a song
sung by the whistle
Long cold sleep broken
slow airs turn to reels and jigs
life begins anew
Lazy hot july
sitting on the shady porch
whistle through the day
_________________________
421
Found Grandpa's whistle
Melodies long forgotten
Grandma hears again
422
plumbing always leaks
PolyVinylChloride tubes
scavenged for whistles
423
Hardware clerk,"Plumber?"
"no I am not a plumber,
whistle makin' guy"
424
Message board goes nuts
Copeland's taking orders now?
sigh, waiting, waiting
Mark Vanek
425
The notes squeak and groan
A tweaked Clarke succumbed to spit
But the cat likes it
426
Five months, Ann told me
My Sindt D yet to be born
Anticipation
427
Upper register
Taunting me with near success
Dogs howl in the night
428
So many choices
Fipple flute fecundity
I'll have two of each
Michael
and Elizabeth Lynch
429
The old ballad spoke--
"Play quietly and weirdly,
Whistle as a ghost."
Melanie Ford
430
Stolen breath, useless
Fingers frozen together,
But I'll not quit play.
431
Fipple finishes!
Fortunately, friends frothing
For future fipp'ling.
432
Ripp'ling down my spine,
My breath such sweet voice giveth
This tiny whistle
Michele Bither
433
Free time, yes! free time
Started to get to my wife
'till threatened a fife!
434
"Oh Daddy, stop please,
I'm trying to watch the T.V"
No Practice today
435
4 brand new Gen-D's
4 Happy playful children
1 angry ex-wife
436
Close your eyes and see
The Flight of the Bumblebee
A Copeland Low D
437
An Acorn Whistle
In my garden stands holding
up tomato plants
438
I hold a song close
and when I play, I just play
mindful of the notes
439
New whistle
in box
Birthday present, Clarke in D
Saintly whistle spouse
440
Saintly whistle spouse
If you can't beat 'em join 'em
learning to whistle
441
Rodney Dangerfield
and my Generation D
Both get no respect
442
Mira Sorvino
And Copeland Low D whistle
Like heaven on earth!
443
Chiff and Fipple site
Music to a whistler's ear
Advice with humor
444
Whistling with asthma
The Irish Washerwoman
No easy feat
445
Playing all night long
Are you coming to bed soon?
a few more minutes
Peter Murray
446
Haiku is not nice
When your whistle feels like ice
Costs you twice the price
447
Haiku may be swell
But when you have to whistle
Only time will tell
448
Serendipitous
Fortunes whistle round your ear
Anyone get paid?
449
Play jigs from Micho
And reels yet ere to be heard
Burma Shave: Yourself
Phillip Alexander
450
Celtic praise music -
on a howard low whistle
heals my troubled heart.
Robert Leechford
451
winter wind
whistle song carries
pure heaven
452
when I dance
the whistle calls me
I am torn
453
need to play
need to learn more songs
why I live
454
notes blending
dreams solidify
I am here
Rosemary Kilpatrick
(Note: Rosemary’s Haiku are so lovely,
I’ve included them here, even though
they do not meet the 5/7/5 syllable rule.
REAL haiku, of course, do not require
the 5/7/5 rule, which I used in this
contest to provide some discipline
for those unaccustomed to writing haiku. )
455
Unwanted it came,
a fipple flute, now I'm gone
clean as a whistle.
456
Little high E flat,
Emphysema, arthritis.
A perfect birthday.
457
Just settled in when
Chief O'Neill's arrests me, but
I can't be stopped !
458
The Mills Are Grinding,
still played in G, this night
home, warm, among friends.
---Sam Allen
459
Wife suspects something
It's not another woman
Just my brand new Burke
460
Bad consequences
But her lawyers say I can
Keep the Susato
461
Practice and practice
I blow harder and harder
Why does my dog cry?
462
Sold my old Gibson
An old flame top Les Paul
To pay for whistles
463
What?!? Am I crazy?
I loved that old guitar,
but
Ah, a low C Burke
464
How many more lawns
Must I mow so I can buy
A brand new Copeland?
465
A Celtic haiku?
Godzilla and Leprechauns?
It makes sense to me
Scott Stewart
466
Small children follow.
Could it be the Pied Piper
Was playing a Clarke?
467
But let's not forget,
Rats also did follow him...
Generation G.
-Sherrie Dennis
468
The king he resides
in Birmingham all alone
his whistle friends sob.
469
Happiness for Dale
can't be that hard to realize
pure tone in the chiff.
470
A pixie dances
playing sweet in the moonlight
swaying on the breeze.
Scotty & Stacey Curtis
471
Don't legislate: think!
Whistles don't annoy people;
Whistle players do.
472
Just one more whistle,
And I'll have the right number.
Possibly two more.
473
Fifteen hundred souls;
All panting, red in the face!
What's Chiff and Fipple?
474-476
("First Session")
I try to keep up.
The dancers skitter onward.
Laughing birds, their feet.
An overblown shriek.
I'll do it again next verse:
Improvisation.
A pure note, a run,
a roll, I surprise myself!
Must be someone else
Steve Miklos
477
A stumbling dancer
my B flat whistle is now
a whole lot flatter
478
The aged Faedog
Is session-battered and chipped
Rest good friend - and, thanks
479
My tin whistle is
made out of plastic - which can
cause some confusion
Steve Mansfield
480
air into wave forms
ordinary to magic
whistle transforming
Steve Miller
481
With brain off-duty
My fingers jig like wee fiends
Matter over mind
482
Slow airs on the porch
In the wash, coyotes sing
Desert night duet
483
Airport x-ray sees
My PVC whistle case
Whistling is a blast!
484
Kitty on my lap
Scrambles at the first high F
Reels don't soothe this beast
Susan Lynn Peterson
485
air is sufficient,
two hands, six working fingers.
tune is debatable.
486
whistles melodic,
sweet, tuneful, and harmonic.
bagpipes pentatonic.
487
Whistles in high D
too cramped; holes much too close.
Low G, right spacing.
488
Instruments and voice;
Madden directs and manages,
Cherish the Ladies.
489
Noah Herbison,
crafting metal, Laughing Whistles.
Canadian sounds!
Stewart Patterson
490-495
HAIKAI TO ROBERT CLARKE
Robert Clarke knew all
about tinwhistles, but just
nowt about haikai
If it were not for
Robert Clarke the tinwhistle
Might never have been
The world of Celtic
music owes an immense debt
to Robert's whistle
Tho' these days I must
admit Pennywhistles cost
much more than one p.
(In fact, public loos
cost much more than a penny
to spend a penny)
So let us raise with
one accord paeons of praise
to his memory
Norman Dannatt
Clarke Tinwhistle Co.
496
His tinwhistle drove
All his neighbours mad. Are mutes
Made for tinwhistles?
497
The whistle owes much
To Dale Wisely and his great
Chiffandfipple news
Norman Dannatt
Clarke Tinwhistle Co.
498
Whistle music is
to those who hear its
calling
Simple true and pure
499
Old whistle old tunes
in the new millennium
Never out of date
500
Problems are solved
to the rescue once again
comes Dale Wisely
Timothy Young
501
The warmth of my Cook
Like mem'ries of summer's sun--
Gold over wheatstalks.
502
Screaming children plead,
Run maddened-mute from the room--
Generation G.
503
Like Sphinx's Riddle
Or Rubik's maddening cube--
Susato's thumb rest.
504
Is it the lithe song
Of the piper's lonely voice
That informs my days?
505
A week at deer camp-
Men clean guns...me? a high D.
Why the thorny stares?
506
When ferns push with faith,
Unfold from March's bed,
Know a whistler's joy.
Bill Lewis
507
clean clear sharp and shrill
stab me over and over
pierce my heart with joy
Wiseowl52
508
The undisputed
King of internet you-know-
what is Dale Wisely.
509
The Chiff and Fipple
message board is a place where
whistlers become friends.
510
No, I'm not Davy
Spillane, but I do play him
on TV. Yeah, right.
David Sieg
(511-514
deleted during editing—duplicates)
515
Holes too far apart.
Piper fingering's no help -
Can't play with my toes.
516
Do re mi fa hiss
Do re mi fa hiss...squeak, hiss
"Where's the detergent??!"
517
Pure sweet harmonies,
One whistle in each nostril.
Why have I no friends?
518
Of all instruments,
"acquisition disorder"
is unique to ours.
519
I play her soft airs.
She lays her head in my lap.
Pity she's a dog.
520
Whistles, mosquitos:
Both share a high ratio:
annoyance for size.
521
Whistling at top speed;
Six fingers busy at once.
How do I change gears?
522
I play haunting airs
at dusk as the light changes
from green back to red.
523
Grab a curtain rod.
Insert fipple and drill holes.
'Roll-your-own' whistle!
524
"MAIL PROGRAM ERROR
HARD-DISK FULL - MUST UNSUBSCRIBE
FROM CHIFF AND FIPPLE."
525
When two whistlers meet...
"Hi Dale, how's your chiff doing?"
"Not good - fipple's clogged."
526
I roll in my sleep,
and cut and slap and cran too.
My wife wears earplugs.
527
Whistles can be played,
or used as swords for fencing,
or picking your ears.
528
A sword is mighty;
A pen is more, but neither
can reach high high D!
529
I lie back to dream
I play my whistle, and POW!
I'm Jean Luc Picard!
David Aberdeen