Simply Haiku: An E-Journal

Michael McClintock

cloud after cloud . . .
the many-windowed prison
at Sing Sing
	a year's rain --
	little pits hardened
done for the day,	in the sun-baked earth
an ironwood chair
for my bones
	straightening my back --
	the gong from a bell
enough daylight	on a distant hill
to walk the distance
to your garden
and back---if you	seated on a plane
send me back	I've become another
	of your many lovers
	disappearing fast
at the bottom	over the horizon
of a trash can
a wrapped baby
looking up	nothing to do,
at the stars	putting on
	loud socks

	--Maya: Poems 1968-75 (Seer Ox , 1975)
an old photo
of my parents
young and happy --	for breakfast
of all the things I own	I'll give you bread
that is the saddest	but for the afternoon
	please carry the worms
--The Tanka Anthology	and let's go fishing
(Red Moon Press, 2003)
	--San Francisco International Tanka Contest
	2003 (HPNC)
sometime during the day
the shining haze has left this field
faintly green	sketching in pencil
	an old face
--Daily Yomiuri, Feb. 2004	a thousand rivers

	--Special Award, Basho Festival 2003
the moon
has found it for me
a mountain path	a candle
	flares, darkening
--Drevniok Award 2002, Haiku Canada	the basilica

	--Tundra No. 2, 2001
the short winter day
is over;
boiling noodles	each there
	for the other---
--Tundra No. 2, 2001	moon and pine

	--Still, Issue 4, 2001
during the night
the rain returns
to the paper roof	windless day . . .
	down the line of aspens
--Still, Issue 2, 2001	pass the years

	--from the haibun "High Gun on the Gila,"
muggy night . . .	Commended, Nobuyuki Yuasa
the child's moon drawing	International English Haibun
taped to the fridge	Competition, 2003

--from the haibun "Raspados," 2nd Award, Nobuyuki Yuasa International English Haibun competition, 2002