#NewportHaiku
On Monday, June 20th visiting catalyst Jake Dunagan, PhD, delivered his lecture The Future as Cognitive Prosthetic to a full house at Rosecliff Mansion. During the lecture, Jake asked the audience to craft haikus at two different intervals as a means to creatively express our thoughts about the future twenty-years from now– the first prompt focused on the personal, the second prompt focused on the community. Posted below are the haikus that were generated from audience participants.
In twenty years will I say
I told you so?
Problems of energy are solved
the climate continues to challenge
cities are our refugeWork with hand and eye
Generate new images
But tools every changing
My wife in one hand
as my kids pay all the bills
in the other my wrench
Seventy-seven
Hard work, hand hewn, toil in the sun
All so fluid now
The State ACI
Has a marble lunch room
No inmates
At ninety, wrinkly
cocktails, music, gardens, you
still smelling roses
Still dancing – hopefully
classical ballet will not change –
grasping the nettle
of new realities with
a cognitive force
Seeing my grandchildren
reimagine the dreams that
my garden teaches
In my little house
With luck my mind is still mine,
Awake to the world.
I will mostly be dead
my corpse will
contain many valuable metals
Nine decades plus two
all anew
body almost gone
When I think I will
be transported to that time
It goes without saying
Always a nomad
chasing history not mine,
rental full of cats
Now work is over
New horizons are dimming
Edith has passed on
Age will matter less.
Mindspan will be far greater.
Hope I will be here.
An image, my mind
screens of thought
When I’m seventy-eight
Kalakuku’a views
dolphins spiral the point
72 and Healthy
City adapts to change
I still row to work
Moving along
on life’s crazy journey
reaching out for fun
experiences
Multiplying and moving
it’s very different
I will be happy
in love with my life today
for I will soon die
I consider life
so precious, that I will act
now for tomorrow
go for a walk
intersect in the sunshine
my life is goodness
Self driving carpool
makes the commute to Newport
a pleasure boat cruise
Sixty, feeling light.
Batteries charging always
Sixty years to go.
Sea levels rising,
Worries no action worries,
Hurricanes hit hard.
Solar car ride
to play in my tennis match
with digital scoring.
When I am ninety
My painting will keep me young
Creating is love.
Alert, dynamic.
Stronger than my friends will be.
In shape. Starting now.
Eighty-five, still alive
My books will have had new looks
Newport history will thrive.
When ninety-seven
years of earth time be
making heaven now
the world is round
sky turns red haze purple
trees look brown not green
Newport, Charlotte both
Practice unplanned every day
– Do Good. Have Fun. Sleep.
When I am forty-six
children, career, home
someplace that I love
In my wildest dreams
An image of the past age
Will become reality
Sitting in the sun –
Flowers floating around my head
Energy sublime –
Grandchildren create
imagination so strong
Hope I get their song
Dreaming, flying, zen
Dirty water and robot men
Smoky sun, electric moon.
Floating, drifting mist
Waves occupy reality
Eyes open jaws dropped
My life
In that future time
the Desert will afford me
solace from this Hell
drones, red-winged black birds
negotiating space in
meadows, deliver.
The cars been long gone.
Our house no more on the hill.
Clear close ocean views.
Now it’s dark at night.
The ocean is much closer
and the car is gone.
Winter’s not too cold.
We rent our rooms to strangers.
They get here by boat.
I am old fashioned,
I still use a computer
and conversation.
Sold my old cell phone
to a curious android
said it tasted good.
Haikus: Newport / Community
I may not get my feet wet.
Tax bills from sea level rise
could drown me.
The sea is coming in
Only the loving stewards remain
to build the wall
Weaving old with new
Next generation lives
And learns to create the future
Bustling Newport
Colliding ideas and minds
Inspiring beyond
Paradise flows through
rocks, moss, with fly catchers; though
the sea will bring gulls
Three towns then
have become one island
much better
Farmland trails stores gone
open spaces all life thrives
ocean clean trash gone
Hopefully no homeless people
begging on our street corners.
Five hundred square feet
living space. Water, water
everywhere.
Inspiration still here.
Possibilities exist
just around the edge. . .
The flowers are pretty
but there is
no electric for
traffic lights
Mud in the basement
I think I’ll plant some lettuce
expecting mushrooms
Gondolas at my door
Go to town go home
The best way home
Have-nots in house boats,
mansions reinhabited –
cheap waterfront views
Water has risen
Bravely we stay in love
Dear Bristol does survive
Prov beyond and broke
imposed simplification
not so bad really
Living on high land
Become a vegan to eat
Where are the mansions?
A culture of yes
community engagement
What Cheer, common weal!
400 plus and healthy
Community embraces change
Boats, bikes, food and water.
Seeking to affect
Water rising further
moving uphill
digital Newport
a mobile community
online connections
the ocean was still
blue, but it was much larger
we were much smaller
my children ride bikes
on the water, while I rest
on floating surfaces
Cove takes Marriott
back; NRF now restores
house boats on Bridge Street
Pawtucket play ball
There’s so much more than McCoy
Where’s your fun factory?
Light rail over the bridge
toes in the sand fruit compote
bike home with a sunburn
Bike paths everywhere,
Storms cut Jamestown into halves,
Still idealic place.
Bike paths everywhere,
New construction limited,
Restorations surge.
Arts will keep alive
our beloved West Side
All ages will thrive
Fun city U.S.A.
Peaceful island of Love & Joy
A well-oiled machine
My town has become
The Newly found Jerusalem
In Newport, RI
Emptiness is found around
the past is found in abundance
bikes and people replace the vehicles
Water high
more boats than houses to live in
why not think anew
Below the water
Hard to breathe or even see
It didn’t have to be
Newport By the Sea
Blue water ever present
sailing bright future.
Island smaller, tight
People crowded but unite
Safe port in future storm
Meat farm, meat farm, fry
meat farm, meat farm, time to cry
meat farm, meat farm, die.
Algael t-shirt shop
closes its doors and goes fishing
All the tourists left
Meteors crash down
The plug is pulled by default
I can hear the Earth
Despite the cash flow
Mother Nature will prevail
Taking back her own
little bits is enough:
homes, work, peas, art, milk, time, love –
we have it all.
The money dried up,
and the floods made us wetter.
Those who stayed are close.
Affluence still reigns
but there is no middle class.
Beaches for the few.
Tourists are the ones
making public policy –
we wash their dishes.
Old money is dead.
Their kids don’t want this small town.
Gilded arts centers.
Fish have right of way
at every intersection
all time low for bikes