Finches at the feeder
finches at the feeder
behind the back
of the sleeping cat . . .
what goes on
behind mine?
Published in American Tanka (http://www.americantanka.com/june-2015-issue-25/bill-waters/), 6/26/15.
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finches at the feeder
behind the back
of the sleeping cat . . .
what goes on
behind mine?
Published in American Tanka (http://www.americantanka.com/june-2015-issue-25/bill-waters/), 6/26/15.
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Of all the bits of humor and wisdom I ever thought I’d get from a fortune cookie, I never expected a précis on writing that applies beautifully to Japanese-style micropoetry. LOL!
* * * *
summer downpour
next door
the kids keep playing
Published in Tinywords: Haiku & Other Small Poems (http://tinywords.com/haiku/2005/06/23/), 6/23/05.
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into our lives
and then out again . . .
stray kitten
one firefly . . .
the rumble
of distant fireworks
after the rain
one cricket sings
in the stillness
Published in Akitsu Quarterly: Summer 2015 (http://www.wildgraces.com/Akitsu-Quarterly.html), 6/4/15.
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some rice
some beans . . .
this wooden spoon
Published in Frogpond: The Journal of the Haiku Society of America, March 2015.
* * * *
For nearly ten decades, French farmers have turned up bones when they till their fields — pieces of soldiers and animals blasted to bits by high explosives in the back-and-forth battles of World War I. Unexploded shells are unearthed as well, and the ubiquitous barbed wire.
gunmetal clouds
and the smell of wet earth
bitter black coffee
It’s said that war debris will continue to surface for centuries to come — centuries! So much hate pounded into such a long, narrow strip of land. Plowed deeply by explosives, the Western Front is still a battlefield; it’s mostly underground now, but it’s there.
is that a stone
or a bone?
sound of distant thunder
Only the farmers can understand; only those who work the land and physically reap the reminders of war’s cost really get it. To visit an ossuary — the final resting place of countless unidentified bones — is a grim experience, certainly, but to pick up a single finger bone, a shard of skull, a broken rib… It’s death on a human scale and a lesson not easily forgotten.
taking shelter
the rattle of rain
on corrugated steel
Published in Haibun Today (http://haibuntoday.com/ht92/H_Waters_TheWestern.html), 5/29/15.
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