Book of the Week: Field: A Haiku Circle
Don Eulert, one of the founding editors of English-language haiku’s first journal, American Haiku, teaches psychology to aspiring doctors using haiku (see his interview on this site). Field is his most significant book, from AHA Books (1998).
You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.
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All haiku in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by Tom Clausen, and are used with permission.
welcoming me home in just one room flowerstime outside time after a slow rain all night snail on the doorstepa nail glows red in the fire pit ashes moon-set in fogon the window sill leavings of wood ants winter morning sunthe big tin clock goes on talking to itself I click the doorthe lighted window fire in moths' eyes this March nightone almond left in the yellow bowl we go on talkingonce cut away this apple branch would leave what space?what stopped them? those frogs going quiet like I meant to bequail excited in dirt turned up by a gopherrain in the granite grinding holes left by First People little sky mirrorsthis shark's tooth fifteen million years old in better shape than minework pants earth-stains never quite wash out from the kneesthere's that crow again wheeling high in the wind pretending she's a hawkstones not yet carried but see how they will look walled around the housein their box red geraniums blooming beside the outhouseall the stars we'd miss if we had a place inside to pissrubbing it to nothing the last rag from a favorite old plaid shirtshe's still there (if you're looking for the cat) by the gopher holesunflowers too lining the road from the field watch sunsetguests warm their hands around the open fire a slow dancingNew Year's evening clearing the window shelf for next year's memories
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welcoming me home
in just one room
flowers
once cut away
this apple branch would leave
what space?
by Don Eulert
So true how flowers transform a room. “once cut away” reminds me of when my parents had to take down their apple tree. I gave my mom “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein (1964, Harper & Row, Author Copyright). Now the book is in this room.
Ellen
Two Don Eulert haiku that stick with me are ” time outside time” and ” on the window sill”. I think Shiki would have especially liked the latter.