skip to Main Content

Book of the Week: Monsoon

hart_monsoon

William Hart is a poet from Kansas, but you’d never know it from his work, which is often richly exotic, as this beautiful 1991 collection from Timberline Press will attest.

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.


below rice fields hawks hitch the wind Kathmandu valley 
yielding its flower to the bee gentle butterfly
three dozing mutts old scar head slits yellow eyes
litmus test for monks janitor's girl shampoos in the sun
making a squab in a few wingbeats rooftop pigeons
a grimace in the mud— crushed rat
jet supper— deep in the clouds shifting Himalayas
rain on the Hooghly buoys in the current a carcass passes
mellow rain falls on the Calcutta club dragonflies cruise the lawn
afternoon shade a body on the sidewalk swats itself
tomato vendor helps fill the scale with split ones
the leper's tin cup her stub palm
fishermen in punts delta river bay-wide, moving
perfect foil the pearl dealer's stained teeth
spice pedlar rolls seeds in a jar to stop baby crying
our train passes from mountain tunnel into cloud
a hilltop city shimmers under stars night train

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. I really liked William Hart’s ” below rice fields” and “jet supper—”.

  2. Wonderful! strong in sensory details of these far away places and I enjoyed the simple line drawings. Thanks again, these books have become a highlight in my week 🙂

Comments are closed.

Back To Top