Simply Haiku: An E-Journal

Simply Haiku: An E-Journal of Haiku and Related Forms
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Haiku by Michael R. Collings

Winds blow ice-sharp breath
On clear, doubled window panes--
Orchid petals drop.

Flash of icy white
Against stark December gloom--
A violet blooms

Steadfastly, water
Turns the moss-robed wheel, as if
Gnarled hands still lived.

Sing man-Orpheus,
His descent to brace Death's smile--
But sing not to me.

Flames unfold against
Jungle-rounded canopies--
Red hibiscus bloom.

Michael R. Collings is a professor of English and the Director of Creative Writing at Pepperdine University. For the past six years he has also served as the first Poet-in-Residence for the University. His published poems, almost a thousand in number, have appeared in multiple collections as well as in print and online journals around the world. His interests range from the tight focus of haiku and cinquain to the broad canvas of Renaissance epic (a 7,000 line behemoth echoing Milton's Paradise Lost). In his non-poetic time, he has written a number of books, articles, and reviews, concentrating on Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror writers including Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Dean R. Koontz, Brian W. Aldiss, and Robert McCammon.