Poet Profile

Dave Read

Dave Read is a Canadian poet living in Calgary. He primarily writes short poems with an emphasis on the Japanese genres of haiku, senryu, tanka, and haibun. His work has been published in many journals, including Presence, Modern Haiku, Haiku Canada Review and Acorn.

Awards and Other Honors: Winner, The Haiku Foundation Touchstone Individual Poem Award 2016; work selected for dust devils: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2016 (Red Moon Press, 2017) and old song: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2017 (Red Moon Press, 2018).

fading light
her child’s name
fills the street

night winds
my courage the size
of the peephole

wilderness trail
he wanders off the edge
of his map

autumn dawn 
the apple tree
ripe with robins

butterfly effect
the children stop
to watch

darkness ...
her name slips
into it

Credits: "fading light" - Presence 57 (2017); old song: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2017 (Red Moon Press, 2018); "wilderness trail" - Frogpond 38.3 (2015); "butterfly effect" - Frogpond 38.3 (2015); "night winds" - Failed Haiku 1.5 (2016); dust devils: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2016 (Red Moon Press, 2017); "autumn dawn" - A Hundred Gourds 5:1 (2015); "darkness" - Acorn 37 (2016); The Haiku Foundation Touchstone Individual Poem Award 2016.