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Volume 37.3
Autumn 2006

 

sample haibun

 

Island

Ahead lie the purple headlands, sea mist, waters hiding legendary shipwrecks. Over the causeway, hundreds of bald eagles soar: a sight to last a lifetime. I watch their white heads flash in the slanting sunlight for a while, then continue my drive on the back roads, not knowing which Last Gasp Motel or Trucker’s Haven will shelter me tonight. On either side, the forest endlessly extends. Heavy rain. I can hardly see where I’m going. Does anyone live here? Where are the fiddlers and fishermen? The whole island seems abandoned. Suddenly, barriers.

road work—
a yellow-slickered woman
holds up a stop sign

Ruth Holzer

• • •


The Nod of Approval

Hundreds, thousands, millions of voices yelping to be heard. Some with crystalline clear manifestos articulating visions worthy of voice. Others with thick tongues and fogged thoughts barely capable of belching out sounds not already expressed in a pop song or televised sound bite. The common primal need to be heard and receive the nod of approval. It wells up and oozes out in various ways. The need for status ... respect ... money ... sex ... power ... approval. We all yearn to leave our smudge on the window of time.

caught by the branch
fluttering ever so gently—
a plastic bag

Jeffrey Winke

• • •


 

© 2006 Modern Haiku • PO Box 1570 • Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459