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In Japan, haiku is written in a single line vertically. Some poets and translators have proposed that haiku in English should also be in one line, but horizontally. The following are selections of my one-line haiku, sometimes also called monostich haiku, together with a few minimalist poems that might not be haiku. Publication credits appear at the end. See also “pwoermds” and “Blips.”
aftershocked
an ant in the shadow of the pebble I kicked
a robin’s song the next hospital bed now empty
at the end of the grey horizon a ship
at the end of the valley birdsong
beach silence i wade the wind
blown to the end of the lake an old rowboat
camel’s hump the hidden pyramid
deserted park hail on the chessboard
discussing steaks new vegetarians
dust hovers above the road at sunset
fear of miscarriage end of war
firelight in and out of tinsel
fog
foghorn
from horizon to horizon the milky way
jaywalkingthedog
kicking acorns the bough cracks
pallbearers pause dust motes slowly falling
playing whist again her wistful smile
pop fly sound of clapping chairs
potatoes eyeing me eyeing potatoes
second trimester we name our cars
slow along the knife edge the chef’s pinkie
spring wind spreads the pine needles
startling naked lovers the moo
still heron stills me
2 a.m. the sleeping pill ad
under the bridge the road changing pitch
waiting waiting the train with no caboose
These poems previously appeared in Black Bough, Brevities, Carved on a Beach (Toronto, Ontario: Haiku Canada, 2002), Fig Newtons (Foster City, California: Press Here, 1993), Frogpond, Haiku Canada Newsletter, Haiku Friends (Osaka, Japan: Print 819, 2009), Mirrors, Modern Haiku, Northwest Literary Forum, Origin, Raw Nervz, South by Southeast, Still, Tremors (Foster City, California: Press Here, 1990), WinterSpin, Wisteria, and Woodnotes. Many poems also appeared in the “Chairs Askew,” “Moving Day,” “Pop Fly,” and “The Sandpiper’s Song” broadsides.
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