Haiga

Gean Tree Press, March 2011

Haiku

                       PARIS CAFE IN DECEMBER

                       intermittent rain–
                       coffee and tobacco smoke
                       from an open door

                       a wailing siren –
                       beyond the streaked glass
                       no promises

                        damp wool and steam–
                        the holiday restored
                        with a brandy

Modern Haiku, spring 2005
 

Haiku

                                  snowy afternoon
                               a slow accumulation
                                      of desire

A Hundred Gourds, June 2012

Haiku

                                           ice floes
                                                following the river tide–
                                                     it is what it is
Presence, Summer 2012

Tanka

               
                                 anticipation
                                 slipping in with the cold
                                 of December;
                                 like a child I plan and dream
                                 and polish my sparkle

Moonset, spring 2010
 

Haiga

Haibun

                                  Daggett Street
         

One fourth of the yard given to vegetables, one fourth to grass and a clothesline, one half to a grape arbor.  Lilies-of-the-valley and jack o’lanterns grow in the shadows. Under the thick vines, pieces of linoleum placed over the hard packed dirt. A rusty metal table and wobbly chairs where Grandma sits shelling peas or mending, Grandpa drinking a glass of wine made from his own grapes.  Me as a toddler, my sister two years older, playing.

                                          muggy heat
                                a sudden awareness
                                  the clock stopped

Early morning trucks rumble up the street.  The Goodyear factory, a cheese processing plant, a paper box company–each with its own pick-ups and drop-offs.  The noise, the smells.  Just part of living on Daggett Street.  There are some benefits:  in summer, a thirsty group of workers always willing to buy lemonade from two little girls; in all seasons, brick factory walls good for tossing balls against.

                                        heavy snow
                                snuggling under a blanket
                                         of silence

The rooms empty, smaller with the furniture gone.  The house in need of paint, the arbor, full of grapes that will not be picked.  The taxi honks and we depart.

                                       autumn colors
                             blurring in a swirl of leaves
                                    all the days to come

Modern Haiku, Autumn 2011

Haiga

Haigaonline, December 2010