Poet Profile

Ruth Franke

Ruth Franke was born in Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany, and made her home in the Upper Rhine region where three countries meet (Germany, France, and Switzerland). She was involved with languages all her life, both professionally and as a pastime. Her work - poetry, short prose (including haibun) and essays – was widely published in international journals and anthologies.

Awards and Other Honors: Third Prize, International Kusamakura Haiku Competition (2003). She chose to stop participating in haiku competitions.

Books Published: Lapislazuli [Haiku] (2002, Mafora Verlag); Schwerelos gleiten [Slipping Through Water -- in German and English] (2010, Wiesenburg Verlag) [Distribution in the USA: Red Moon Press].

visiting home
the gap
where the poplar was

First snow
children dancing
with open mouths

Easter bonfire
at the darkest hour
the song of birds

long winter
snowflakes falling
on the buzzard's corpse

birthday lilac
the scent
of all those years

wind from southwest
the bamboo shakes off
its snow

alone—
listening to the tale
of a violin

fields of stubble
in the setting sun
long shadows

wild geese in flight—
on distant rivers now
the ice is breaking

a trawler passes
before the setting sun
caught in its nets

Credits: "visiting home" - LYNX (June 2005); "Easter bonfire" - Blithe Spirit 19/2 (2009); "birthday lilac" - Blithe Spirit 19/2 (2009); "alone" - Blithe Spirit 17/2 (2009); "wild geese in flight" - from haibun "Homeland", Haibun Today 5:1 (2011); "First snow" - Asahi Haikuist Network (Feb.9, 2004); "long winter" - Blithe Spirit 20/1 (2010); The Haiku Foundation's Haiku App (2012); "wind from southwest" - Blithe Spirit 20/1 (2010); "fields of stubble" - Schwerelos gleiten [Slipping Through Water -- in German and English] (2010, Wiesenburg Verlag); "a trawler passes" - from haibun "The Sea in Their Blood" in Schwerelos gleiten [Slipping Through Water -- in German and English] (2010, Wiesenburg Verlag).