Winter

The following “Haiku from Index Cards” may give you a mind of winter. This is just a scant selection from many additional winter poems.

winter chill-

the canal boat lowers

into the lock

             (written 2011, published 2013)

winter doldrums—

I find myself

on YouTube

             (written 2014, published 2021)

winter drizzle—

the mattress sale sign spinner

takes a break

             (written 2017, published 2017; see “From Jumble Box”)

winter finches

irrupting in the glen—

wolf moon

             (written 2015, published 2023)

winter fog . . .

    into the golden gate

        half a bridge

             (written 1990, published 1991)

winter funeral—

lots of s’s

in our whispers

             (written 2014, published 2023; see “2023 Trailblazer Award”)

winter funeral—

the weight

of their family Bible

             (written 2011, published 2013)

winter light—

the barber’s breath

against my ear

             (written 2013, published 2021)

winter lockdown—

my B-grade haiku

wins an award

             (written 2021, published 2023)

winter moon—

the steel yard’s guard dog

pacing, pacing

             (written 2002, published 2005; see “Asilomar Pines: A Kasen Renku”)

winter rainbow—

sparrows in the hedgerow

somewhere

             (written 1993, published 2001)

winter rain—

the bulb burns out

in my bedside lamp

             (written 2000, published 2003)

winter rain . . .

the spaces between ocean waves

closer together

             (written 2015, published 2015; for Kathabela Wilson on the death of her mother)

winter solstice—

a few test papers

still unmarked

             (written 2002, published 2007)

winter solstice—

I learn the word

palliative

             (written 2015, published 2023)

winter squall—

my daughter tells me

her doll won’t sleep

             (written 2013, published 2021; see “Haiku of the Day”)

winter stillness . . .

a strand of tinsel

in the tilted pine

             (written 1990/1991, used as my 1991 Christmas card but not otherwise published; see “Haiku Christmas Cards”)

winter stillness

    bare twigs

zigzag through air

             (date written unrecorded, but 1990 or earlier, published 1990; see “Two Autumns”)

winter sunset—

the cat yawns

I yawn

             (written 1992, published 1995)

winter wind—

   a wisp of snow

         curls into the well

             (written 1990, published 1990; see “After the Fall” sequence)

winter wind—

kite string tangled

in the garden trellis

             (written 1992, published 1995, and with a Punjabi translation in 2024)