Book of the Week: row of pine

Jeff Winke has been writing and editing strong haiku for four decades. This attractive chapbook, from Distant Thunder Press in 1988, finds him at his robust best, with his special feel for environments well on display.

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.

row of pine
each in its own way
on icy gray sky

winter moraine
silence of sumac...
the howl of wind


March evening walk
house after house
the cold blue flicker

rural diner
the waitress's sincerity:
"Have a nice day."


strung between 
the farmhouse and hen house
a quilt of Amish gowns

into the gut
of this hot August day-
rotting pears


highway heat
the chalky Olds convertible
his white hair blowing

spilled moonlight
on a near-calm lake
I bathe in her touch


last week's mail
still spread on the kitchen table-
late morning sun

my spiral notebook-
the day's pattern
uncoils


alone today-
the sound of rain
as it leaves the sky

circle of birches
her face
not yet in full shadow


damp night
a rip in the distance
the nearing motorcycle

taped to the page
among yellowed war clippings
the steel penny


leaning into the fog
the bus driver
adjusts his glasses

After Shiki:
glancing back
the woman I passed
grows lovelier