Poet Profile

Deborah P Kolodji

Deborah P Kolodji moderates the Southern California Haiku Study Group and is the president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. She finds inspiration on the wild side of Los Angeles in beaches, mountains, and deserts. A graduate of the University of Southern California with a degree in mathematics, she is the author of four chapbooks of poetry. Her haiku, longer poetry, memoirs, and short stories have appeared in The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku (for 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2009), A New Resonance 4: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2005), Modern Haiku, Frogpond, bottle rockets, The Rhysling Anthology, Star*Line, Strange Horizons, Mainichi Daily News, Comstock Review, Pearl, poeticdiversity, Chicken Soup for the Dieter’s Soul, THEMA, and other places.

Awards and Other Honors: Virgil Hutton Haiku Memorial Award (2004); Second Place, Kiyoshi & Kiyoko Tokutomi Memorial Contest (2009; Second Place, WHC Global Haiku Tournament (2002).

Books Published: Seaside Moon (Saki Press, 2005); Symphony of the Universe (Sam's Dot Publishing, 2006); unfinished book (Shadows Ink Publications, 2006); Red Plant Dust (Gromagon Press, 2006).

thistles in bloom
grandmother's needle threaded
with purple

roadside wildflowers
a cop's bright lights
in my rearview mirror

white marble
I am small at the feet
of Lincoln

the world so big
without you in it--
summer sea

morning fog
on the coastal route
wild mustard

in spite of your silence the birth of stars

Credits: "thistles in bloom" - World Haiku Review (July 2002); Judge's Selection, World Haiku Club Global Tournament; "white marble" - The Heron's Nest V:6 (2003); "morning fog" - The Heron's Nest 11:4 (2009); "roadside wildflowers" - Mayfly 45 (2008); "the world so big" - Yuki Teikei Membership Anthology (2007); "in spite of your silence" - Intercontential Astro-Ecologic Verse, SARM [Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy] (2008).