triveni spotlight: November 2022
A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY! Hosts: Teji Sethi and Kala Ramesh
These poems have been pulled from my ever-growing document of favorite haiku. Some I have admired for years, while others I have newly discovered. This is the joy of poetry, as of life: its ever-changing course of discovery. I encourage all readers of poetry to keep such a file. As far as has been possible, I have obtained permission from the writers to share them. – Paul Miller (paul m.)
-- Paul Miller (paul m.)
1 Billie Wilson
First Place 2003 Harold Henderson Award
whalebone
from a beach near Savoonga—
winter rain
2
Mike Taylor
Modern Haiku 19.3 (1988)
the bluest sky through the noose
3
Bob Boldman
Cicada 4:4 (1980)
leaves blowing into a sentence
4
Carolyn Hall
Calculus of Daylilies (2017)
a shovelful
of rattlesnake
the long day
5
GRIX
The New Green (2021)
learning the pine needles in my spine
6
Brad Bennett
A Drop of Pond (2016)
a swan
flies over the pond
bones whistling
7
Bill Cooper
Tending Gumbo. (2020)
over the egg
that never opens
fresh grass
8
Katō Shūson
Modern Japanese Haiku, trans. Makoto Ueda (1976)
I kill an ant
and realize my three children
have been watching
9
Lee Gurga
Modern Haiku 24.3 (1993)
burying the horse’s
afterbirth —
summer heat
10
Steve Hodge
Frogpond 39.2 (2016)
third deployment
the unfinished dollhouse
beneath a sheet
11 Kanchan Chatterjee
Scattered Leaves (2020)
between thunder claps …
the front door’s
soft creak
12 Eve Luckring
Heron's Nest XVII:3 (2015)
if trees could be landlords
13 Cherie Hunter Day
Modern Haiku 43:1 (2012)
winding road
for the next eight miles
Coltrane
14 John Barlow
2006 Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award, Second Place
the piano hammers
barely moving …
night snow
15
Thomas Powell
Clay Moon (2020)
year’s end frost
the field with a cattle trough
empty of cattle
16
Chiyo-ni
Woman Haiku Master, trans. Patricia Donegan (1998)
to the one breaking it—
the fragrance
of the plum