Book-of-the-Week

Book of the Week: In the Margins of the Sea

herold_inthemarginsofthesea

Christopher Herold writes poems which reflect his active engagement with zen and meditation, and also his environment by the sea. This chapbook from Snapshot Press (2000) captures both of these areas of interest expertly.

Snapshot Press declines to make this book available to The Haiku Foundation Digital Library at this time.

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




with each step up
the beetle slides further down
the dune


sunny beach —
the grain of sand on my page
has a shadow


weathered wooden walk
grains of sand blown in, blown out
of a knothole


foghorns —
we lower a kayak
into the sound


cocking his head
my dog doesn't understand
harbor seals


in and out
of a driftwood lean-to
seagull tracks


early morning light
the locals first to gather
things left by waves


river's end —
the sound of my name in the hiss
of receding surf


the ocean's curve
two tankers pass
through each other


curling paint
shadows lighthouse walls
the sound of breakers


tide receding
another starfish
left to the sun


a touch —
the sea anemone
swallows itself


summer nightfall
the lamp on a tall mast
sways among stars


harbor stillness —
a sailboat
moored to the Milky Way


dawn —
a ship's running lights twinkle
among setting stars

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Christopher Herold’s haiku remain some of my all-time favorites. As with his beautiful book A Path in the Garden, In the Margins of the Sea reinforces the qualities I look for in superior haiku: astute observation, thoughtfulness, sensuousness, affinity with the natural world, and depth of feeling.

  2. I agree with Gene on Christopher Herold’s ” foghorns–”, of course. Fine work.
    Then there’s the charm of ” with each step up” and the meditative ” sunny beach–”.

  3. One of my favorite people, editor, and poets.

    foghorns

    is one of my all-time favorite haiku. Excellent idea,
    thank you for sharing!

    gene

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