Poet Profile

Ronald Scully

Ron Scully is a retired bookseller. After twenty-five years on the road, a real-life Willie Loman only funnier, Ron has retired to the foothills of New Hampshire to refashion his field sales reports into an odyssey, a crown of sonnets, or a haiku or two, whichever comes first. At his ripe old age, he takes the time to practice haiku daily, as a form of meditation. Time slows down, doting on the fullness of the world, the blossom of being.
As a student, Ron flirted with the world of belle lettres, publishing in small literary journals most of which are extinct long ago. As an adult, he has been an independent bookstore owner, consultant, distributor, and finally one of the principles in a publishing company that changed the face of local history publishing in the UK and America. He lives with his wife Kathy and has two adult children reaching their prime on the left coast, and a couple of grandchildren to boot. For most of Ron's living memory he has been dedicated to raising a family and growing a business. As of 2016, he has been able to put those commitments behind him and has enjoyed the time returning to a life of letters, that is primarily the practice of haiku.
Ron dabbles in various forms of verse, depending on what is given, but mostly he practices haiku daily if not hourly. He dabbles in all forms of ku from experimental to concrete to even an occasional 5-7-5. He has accumulated a bank of thousands of short form poems he refers to as near haiku or poe-ku.
Some of his work has found its way into print in the following journals Acorn, Akitsu Quarterly, Atlas Poetica, Bones, bottle rocket, Brass Bell, Cattails, Eucalypt, Failed Haiku, Folded Word, Frogpond, hedgerow, Human/Kind, Otata, Prune Juice, Skylark, tinywords, Troutswirl (The Haiku Foundation's blog), Under the Bashō, Weird Laburnum, Wild Plum, and a dozen on-line publications. Additionally, he has published a half dozen lyrical pieces in poetry journals.

two buffleheads
dawdle down the river
the long day wanes

overgrown garden
gate rusted half open
other half closed

Chopin's Nocturnes
phrasing 
between white birch trees

children's laughter
lost in the woods
the river

deadheaded late
lamb's ear and foxglove
our last anniversary

southern cicada
my brother returns
the rust-tooth saw

Credits:

“two buffleheads” - Acorn #43, Fall 2019; “overgrown garden“ - bottle rocket #41, 2019; “Chopin's Nocturnes“ - chrysanthemum #25, April 2019; “children's laughter“ - cattails Oct. 2019; “deadheaded late“ - hedgerow #125 Nov. 2018; “southern cicada“ - Frogpond Vol. 38:3, Autumn 2015.