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