Book of the Week: Trawlers
Sam Savage, before his acclaim as a novelist, tried his hand at numerous tasks, including letterpress printer and haiku poet. He set this first volume, from Hardscrabble Press in 1999, himself.
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.
Winter idleness- with each gust the moored boats creakOysters rattling onto the deck the scrape of boots the coldAll the boats out the pilings are white with droppings in the heatOn the glaring sea shrimp boats in the haze the heatOne whole day sound of the boat engine sound of the wavesPulling a crab pot hand over hand the swirling waterReturning trawler- in a net by the wheelhouse onions, potatoesAgain no money- a crescent moon through the needles of the pineOne sky... horizon to horizon ten thousand wavesEven at sea yellow butterflies of autumnAt the end of the day a cool breeze between two buildingsBecoming dusk... into the moored darkness water splashing from a bilgeMonotonous recorded voice on the weather band- the sound of the windThe vast ocean- the nearest things are stars
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I loved the creaking of the moored boats.
Very nice Haikus.
Dear Tom, Thank you for selecting Trawlers by Sam Savage. Good to reread his haiku today. Comparing my copy to THF digital version, the first thing I noticed was how well the print copy translated to the online version. The texture of the endpapers is so lovely.
Thanks to all, these posts must take some time. Ellen