Book-of-the-Week

Book of the Week: 39 Blossoms

lamb_39blossoms

Elizabeth Searle Lamb’s earliest published haiku date from the 1970s, well before her time as editor of Frogpond. Here is some of that early work, from High/Coo Press in 1982.

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.

All haiku in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by Tom Clausen, and are used with permission.




as the leaves fall
an old treehouse out back
coming to light


shimmering beneath the glaze,
blue brush strokes
on the Chinese ginger jar



finding a threaded needle
rusted into one of the unfinished
Crazy Quilt blocks


the old album:
not recognizing at first
my own young face



still this morning
hanging from a cobweb strand,
the leaf that broke it


the emptiness
where the eyes were in the shed
snakeskin





the bright red truck
moves off in its own
dustcloud



the meadowlark
holding down the fencepost
with song
leaving     all the morning glories     closed

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. When I saw this book by Elizabeth Searle Lamb, I remembered she was born in 1917, the same year as my mother. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I bought ACROSS THE WINDHARP, Collected & New Haiku by Elizabeth Searle Lamb. Miriam Sagan, Editor. Preface by William J. Higginson. (Published by La Alameda Press in New Mexico, in 1999.) I’m not sure, but interesting the many ways we connect with authors, that they may never know. The beauty and mystery of that . . .

    I enjoyed 39 Blossoms. Thank you. Ellen

  3. Tom Clausen’s selection hits all the high points.
    Thanks Tom.
    I especially enjoyed the treehouse ‘coming to light’. A perfect choice of words.

  4. I was fortunate enough to have haiku accepted by Elizabeth Searle Lamb whilst she was the Haiku Society of America’s Frogpond journal editor, in my early years, and I’m still deeply indebted.

    This haiku (from the above collection) blew me away:

    the meadowlark
    holding down the fencepost
    with song

    Elizabeth Searle Lamb

    .

Comments are closed.

Back To Top