Book-of-the-Week

Book of the Week: the orange balloon

harter_orangeballoon

Penny Harter had a reputation and extensive publishing credentials in “long poetry” before she came to haiku in the 1970s. This collection, from From Here Press (1980), gives a flavor of her earliest work.

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.




on the windowsill
a tin can
holding dirt


apartment roofs—
rock strata 
gleam in the rain



on the gallery wall
below the calligraphy
the child's footprint


a train whistle—
your features shrink
on the station wall



out the train window
the night trees
darker than the sky


only letting in the cat
until
the morning star


mountain thunder
lightning
between the stars


in prayer
the blind man
covers his eyes


after the snowplow
the white
line again


under the old car
oil puddles ripple
in the winter wind


the old doll
her mama box broken
to half a cry


the dead bird's wing
flutters
in the wind of passing cars


shaving her legs
the razor nicks
a mosquito bite


she smooths
the uncreased pillow
by her side


the child's orange balloon
stopped
by the ceiling


on the padlock
snow
melting

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. We don’t often witness lyricism that expands beyond the minimalism of the form within the English-language cadre, but we are gifted in good measure with Penny Harter’s collection.

    missing you—
    the cry of the peacock
    in his pen

    Wonderful work.

    Alan, With Words

  4. Sublime. It is as tho’ Chiyo-ni has returned to us…Harter-san’s haiku are magical and profound. I am a big fan.

    -Patrick

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