Well, folks, I am afraid it is time for me to get out of town. I deeply appreciate Tim's invitation to join you for a few days as honorary poet lariate. I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed having been roped into your circle.
As a parting gift--or perhaps punishment, you decide--I would like to offer to publish some of the poems you have shared this week. Modern Haiku's normal policy is to pay a token $1 per poem for snail mail submissions. (We normally don't accept email submissions.) MH is a not for profit, so I am afraid we are unable to offer contributor copies. By the way, you can find us at
www.modernhaiku.org
If the authors are willing, then, I would like to publish the following:
As hunter's approach
bullfrogs fall silent and--sh-h!
the willows whisper.
--Patricia A. Marsh (Slightly edited)
Flags on the dock
snap in the last warm wind.
I sail onto the trailer.
--Alan Sullivan
moonset, and morning
—late again—rush to catch
the last train
--nyctom
midday torpor
its pages still unread
a book falls open
--Janet Kenny
puddle of shadow
beneath the forsythia --
green eyes. black cat!
VictoriaGaile (slightly edited.)
Combining elements of two versions:
The school-term begins—
crisp chalk, fresh blackboards
chattering children.
--Renate
Also slightly edited:
bare apple trees...
still in my obstinate heart
strawberries ripening
--Henry Quince
thunderstorm passes
broken robin’s egg
alive with red ants
--fivefootone
A snowflake in May,
a sailboat hauled from storage
is offered for sale.
--Timothy Murphy
Particularly outstanding among the poems that don’t fit our charge at MH are Lo’s “Blue Ridge” and “In-Utero.” I think they do deserve a home, so I would like to offer to publish them in my newspaper column in Key West. Thought devoted to haiku, I have a lot more flexibility as to the “haikuness” of what I print there.
So here is the deal. If any of you above would like me to publish your poems, please let me know. If you would send me your poems by mail to Modern Haiku, Box 68, Lincoln, IL 62656 USA with a SASE, I could send you your hard earned dollar. As you might imagine, the first $ from MH is something highly treasured . . . I still have mine (from 1986) as does everyone I know. If you are going to allow us to publish you poem, please let me know how you would like your name to appear. And if we are going to publish, please do not post it in any “public” location” (such as your homepage, etc.) since MH doesn’t publish previously published or posted poems.
Once again, thank you all for a week of pleasure and challenge. You have all been great sports, and have displayed that you all are considerably more talented than I am. But don’t worry—I’m used to it!
With a deep bow . . .
Lee
Linear Mode
