Two in German

wie das Sonnenlicht
ihr Haar berührt . . .
später Nachmittag

the way the sunlight

touches her hair . . .

late afternoon

in den Trümmern

des Konvents

dieser murmelnde Wind

in the ruins

of the convent

this murmuring wind

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Published in the German/English e-zine Chrysanthemum, issue 19, page 42 (http://www.chrysanthemum-haiku.net/media/Chrysanthemum_19.pdf), on 4/20/16.

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One in French

de nulle part
à nulle part . . .
le pont dans la brouillard

from nowhere

to nowhere . . .

bridge in fog

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Published in the French/English haiku database Temps Libres, under March 16-31 2016 favorites (http://www.tempslibres.org/tl/tlphp/dbhkcco1.php?date=2016-03-2). Translation by Serge Tomé.

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Haiku poetry day 2016 (part 2)

To round out International Haiku Poetry Day for this year, I attended a haiku walk yesterday at the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed, a vital environmental preserve in Central New Jersey:

International Haiku Poetry Day Ginko

Celebrate and explore haiku, a traditional Japanese form of poetry with its luminous focus on nature. Education Director and haiku poet Jeff Hoagland will provide a brief overview of the haiku tradition before facilitating a ginko, or haiku walk, on the Watershed Nature Reserve. This event is sponsored by The Haiku Foundation.

It was sunny and in the 70s — an ideal afternoon for walking in the woods and writing poetry! Here are a few of the haiku I wrote:
 

spicing the breeze

with its call:

eastern towhee

 

just a seed

until it moves —

brown bug

 

they shadow me

wherever I go!

three vultures

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Haiku poetry day 2016 (part 1)

April 17th was International Haiku Poetry Day, and to get the celebration off to a good start, I contributed a haiku to The Haiku Foundation‘s EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration:

seedling —

it starts its life

bowing to the earth

It seems there’s a holiday for everything, so why not a day for haiku, too?  :- D

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One in French

taches de safran
dans le ciel du soir . . .
chant d’oiseau

saffron smudges

in the evening sky . . .

birdsong

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Published in the French/English haiku database Temps Libres, under March 1-15 2016 favorites (http://www.tempslibres.org/tl/tlphp/dbhkcco1.php?date=2016-03-1). Translation by Serge Tomé.

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National poetry month 2016

This year for NaPoMo I’ve been attempting the writing prompts at The Found Poetry Review (http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/category/impromptu/).

If you’re curious to see some hidden meaning I discovered in a 1921 Bulletin of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, check out Bill Waters ~~ NOT Haiku!  ;- )

Bounding

bounding

from boulder to boulder

spring runoff

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Published in Acorn, spring 2016.

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Found haiku 2

Two haiku peeking out (two voices speaking out?) from between the lines of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 12” and “Sonnet 5″…  :- )

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Reading Between the Lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 12: Elizabethan Haiku Nos. 12a & 12b

 

behold the lofty trees

which canopy the herd!

summer’s green

 

trees barren of leaves

and sheaves borne on the bier . . .

Time’s scythe

 

 When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night,
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silvered o’er with white:
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd
And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard:
Then of thy beauty do I question make
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow,
And nothing ’gainst Time’s scythe can make defense
Save breed to brave him, when he takes thee hence.

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Reading Between the Lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 5: Elizabethan Haiku Nos. 5c & 5d

 

never-resting time . . .

summer’s flowers

with winter meet

 

o’er-snowed . . .

summer’s flowers

lease but their show

 

Those hours that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell
Will play the tyrants to the very same,
And that unfair which fairly doth excel:
For never-resting time leads summer on
To hideous winter and confounds him there,
Sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o’er-snowed and bareness everywhere:
Then were not summer’s distillation left
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,
Beauty’s effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor no remembrance what it was.
But flowers distilled though they with winter meet,
Lease but their show, their substance still lives sweet.

*    *    *    *

Stop staring!

stop staring!

bulbous eyes

of the bullfrog

*    *    *    *

As if

as if

I’m royalty . . .

blossoms beneath my feet

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Published in Tinywords: Haiku & Other Small Poems (http://tinywords.com/2016/04/04/20976/), 4/4/16.

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