Longing for Cool Summer Grass

I'm ready for summer

Hello, Shiny Happy People!

Today I’ve inserted an audio recording of me reading the haiku and the free verse poem found in this newsletter. Below my signoff, you can find the full transcript of the 55-second recording.

children keep secrets
in the tight spaces between
blades of summer grass

Cool Summer Grass

I wanted to feel the cool grass under
my feet and between my toes But the
blades were stiff and sharp, and I forgot
I was allergic to grass, and
developed a rash immediately, and began
sneezing incessantly. I wanted to feel the
cool grass under my feet and between my toes,
but I ate an ice cream cone instead and saved
the joy of the cool summer grass for someone else

Artist Note

My opinion on this changes according to the seasons and the contents of my last meal, and you should never trust the opinion of an artist about their own work, but I think this haiku is the best one I’ve ever written. The illustration is not my best work, but the poem itself might be. I wrote it on May 8, 2020, when the COVID lockdown was starting to feel like the most significant pivot point for humanity during my lifetime.

My greeting in today’s newsletter, as most of you undoubtedly picked up on, is a reference to the R.E.M. song Shiny Happy People. This is a song that most of the band does not like, even though it is one of their biggest hits.

It’s a great pop song—and that’s one reason I think Michael Stipe¹ dislikes it. Peter Buck² has the warmest feelings toward the song, but he acknowledges it’s a different song for the band. The rest of the band despises the song, as do many hardcore R.E.M. fans and the most joyless critics. I love the song and have since I first heard it in 1991. I love the guest vocals by the B-52s Kate Pierson, another band and artist I adore.

You really can’t trust an artist to evaluate their own work.

Be the weird you want to see in the world!

P.S.

Transcript of the audio:

Hi, today is Friday, May 5, 2023. And I’m going to be reading you two poems. First a haiku, and then a free verse poem.

children keep secrets
in the tight spaces between
blades of summer grass

Cool Summer Grass

I wanted to feel the cool grass under
my feet and between my toes But the
blades were stiff and sharp, and I forgot
I was allergic to grass, and
developed a rash immediately, and began
sneezing incessantly. I wanted to feel the
cool grass under my feet and between my toes,
but I ate an ice cream cone instead and saved
the joy of the cool summer grass for someone else

1. My favorite bit of trivia about this song is that Michael Stipe got the lyric, “shiny happy people” from a Chinese government propaganda poster put up during the Tiananmen Square protests.

2. Buck alludes to the different opinions his bandmates have about Shiny Happy People in the Song Exploder episode featuring the R.E.M. masterpiece, Losing My Religion on Netflix.