Wafted by the Breeze

Here’s the first poem from my index card boxes for poems that start with the letter W:

wafted by the breeze . . .

sprinkler spray

This poem was the second verse in “Gravestones,” a rengay I wrote with Jeff Witkin. My verse responded to his starting verse: “snowdrops— / touching the wind-worn name / of her son.” Our setting was a cemetery or graveyard, so that was ostensibly our theme. I first wrote my verse on 5 April 1995, in Foster City, California, and Jeff submitted our rengay to Frogpond on a date that I don’t have a record of. Frogpond published our collaboration in the spring of 1996. Later that year, Jeff included this and two other rengay in his book, The Duck’s Wake. One detail that distinguishes our “Gravestones” rengay is that it was one of three rengay that, to my knowledge, were the first rengay ever published in a book (other than the rengay in Hammerhorn Lake, which I had published myself in June of 1995, originally shared in a limited number of copies that I gave away privately). Although my verse is not a complete haiku (and isn’t meant to be as one of the rengay’s two-liners), I hope it presents a relatable experience, which can be pleasant on a hot summer day, less pleasant at other times, and gains something by its synergy with the verses before and after.

—31 May 2025 (previously unpublished)