Cascadia Haiku

The following twenty haiku all feel like Pacific Northwest poems. They appeared in my various trifolds published during the decade of 2013 to 2023 (all poems were also published in journals before they appeared in my trifolds). I have many more poems on similar and other Northwest subjects, both before and during this time, but I hope this selection provides a pleasing taste of Cascadia living. See also “Northwest Plants and Flowers” and “More Northwest Plants and Flowers.”

loons scattering . . .

a floatplane touches down

into summer

the ferry shakes

into my spine—

the whale’s wake

coastal drive—

we roll down the windows

to hear the ocean

roadside stand—

the boy selling cherries

is taller this year

misty garden—

even in Seattle

I long for Seattle

circles of rain—

tied-up yachts

chumming together

ferry gift shop—

all the tourist mugs

gently clinking

a floating Frisbee—

the river widens

as it nears the sea

rumours of orcas—

a blood-red moon

over the sound

billowing clouds—

the glacial erratic

shadows the crocus

Musqueam old growth—

the sea and sky

we share

roots of the river birch—

a salmon’s carcass

still a bit red

the ferry quiets

as it drifts in to dock—

rising moon

cedars and firs

as still as stones . . .

mountain rain

a deer in the mist . . .

the forest light

at Seabeck

a boat in the bay

slipped from its mooring—

endless rain

fish ladder—

fingerprints on the glass

at child height

around we go

down the lighthouse stairs

summer’s end

Issaquah sunrise—

what’s left of a salmon

reddening the creek

whale bones . . .

the hollow sound

of blowing sand