From Raku Teapot Haiku

Published in Raku Teapot Haiku (Alton Bay, New Hampshire: Raku Teapot Press, 2003), a collection of 143 haiku by twenty-four poets, edited by Zolo and Layne Russell. The book also included a compact disc with recordings of all the poems. Contributors were all members of the Raku Teapot online haiku discussion group, which thrived from early 2001 until late 2004 or sometime in 2005. In my biographical note included in the book, I wrote that “The poems here were chosen for their focus on sound.” See also “2004 Raku Teapot Award” for results of a haiku contest I cojudged with Hortensia Anderson for the Raku Teapot group.

an old fiddle case

takes my coins

and the rain

a crab apple

from the highest branch

rattles down the rain spout

snow-swept crossing—

the shudder

through freight cars

pressing the cold shaver

to my face—

the motor changes pitch

empty silo—

spring wind pops the metal

in and out

wet beach sand—

a sandpiper’s song

of footprints