Poet Profile

Roberta Beary

Roberta Beary is the haibun editor for Modern Haiku. In 2017 she was named Roving Ambassador for The Haiku Foundation. Her haiku book, The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press, 2007), selected as a Poetry Society of America Award Finalist and Haiku Society of America Prize Winner, is in its fifth printing. Her haibun book Deflection (Accents Publishing, 2015), a Haiku Society of America Prize Winner, was named an Eric Hoffer Award Finalist and Touchstone Award Honorable Mention. Poet and playwright Grace Cavalieri writes, “In Deflectionshe extends her reach with some of the most searingly truthful work I’ve seen this year.” Beary identifies as gender-expansive, and writes to connect with the disenfranchised, to let them know they are not alone. Her work is featured in A Companion to Poetic Genre (John Wiley & Sons, 2011) and Haiku In English: The First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton, 2013). She is coeditor of the acclaimed anthology Wishbone Moon (Jacar Press, 2018), Haiku by Women from 6 continents, (Beary, Compton, Ramesh.) She tweets her photoku @shortpoemz.

thunder
the roses shift
into shadow

my son's boyfriend
three words i practice saying
alone in my room

all day long
i feel its weight
the unworn necklace

talking divorce
he pours his coffee
then mine

abortion day
a shadow flutters
the fishtank

autumn moon
her brain a tangle
of white string

Credits:

"thunder" - The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press), Grand Prize, International Kusamakua Haiku Competition 2005; "all day long" - The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press); "abortion day"- from Genetics, Rattle #47, Spring 2015, Tribute to Japanese Forms (Pushcart Prize nominee); "my son's boyfriend" - Deflection (Accents Publishing); "talking divorce" - The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press); "autumn moon" from Caretaker — I, Deflection (Accents Publishing), First Prize, Polish International Haiku Competition 2012.