The Stuttering Priest

In the spring of 1984 I took a creative writing class in college that resulted in the publication of The Stuttering Priest, a small anthology of work by fellow classmates, and our instructor, Rob Weller. This assemblage included 26 haiku (or should I say “haiku”), but none of them were mine. Instead, I contributed the following pieces, under the name Michael D. Welch. Before this class, I somehow had the impression that a cinquain followed a 1-2-3-4-1 pattern of syllables, and I was never corrected. I also included two of the poems, “”August 6” and “Things at Sunset,” in Ninety-Seven Poems, another youthful indiscretion from 1984.

• Cinquain for Introductions

• The Scarecrow

• Wind of Change

• August 6

• Things at Sunset

• Starving