Poet Profile

J. D. Nelson

More than 2,000 of J. D. Nelson’s poems and haiku have appeared in more than 300 small press publications, worldwide, since 2002. His haiku have appeared in tinywords, Mainichi Daily News, Presence, Bones, The Asahi Shimbun (Asahi Haikuist Network), Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, and other publications. He is the author of ten chapbooks and e-books of poetry, including Cinderella City (The Red Ceilings Press, 2012). Visit The Mad Verse of J. D. Nelson - Poetry for more information and links to his published work. His haiku blog is at J. D. Nelson • 俳句 haiku.
Nelson lives in Colorado, USA.

Awards and Other Honors:

2014: One of my haiku that appeared in Mainichi Daily News (Now The Mainichi) was selected by editor, Isamu Hashimoto for the publication's The Mainichi “Best of 2014” collection;
2010–2022: My poems have appeared in six issues of Maintenant: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing & Art (Three Rooms Press, New York City). The annual journal is archived in the collections at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, The Smithsonian, and other institutions;
2021: My poem, “to mask a little bird” was nominated by Lothlorien Poetry Journal for Best of the Net.

Books Published:

in ghostly onehead - my first full-length print collection of poetry is forthcoming in Autumn 2022 from Post-Asemic Press., USA; Cinderella City - e-book, The Red Ceilings Press, 2012, UK; USFL - print chapbook, [free poetry for], 2012, USA; Piso Mojado - e-book, Argotist Ebooks, 2012, UK; When the Sea Dies - print chapbook, NAP, 2011, USA; On the Toad - e-book, The Red Ceilings Press, 2011, UK; Roman Meal - e-book, Ten Pages Press, 2011, USA; Noise Difficulty Flower - e-book, Argotist Ebooks, 2010, UK; The Frankendelphia Experiment - print chapbook, Tainted Coffee Press, 2010, USA; J. D. Nelson Flavored - print chapbook, eBuLLieNCe PReSs, 2009, USA; Spiders in my Beard - The Virtual Chemists Vol. 2, 2007, USA (my 25-poem collection is one of four in the multi-author print collection ).

did I drop something?
I bend over to pick up
a patch of moonlight

cricket
cricket
cricket
     Arcturus

one black sock is pinned
to the laundromat’s corkboard―
the moon, almost full

counting syllables
in the first moments of fall―
one dandelion

small patches of blue
in the grey sky at sunset―
cicadas in trees

afternoon prayers―
the black dog swims through a sea
of tall, golden wheat

Credits:

“did I drop something?” — tinywords, June 28, 2005; “cricket” — Connotation Press Issue I, Vol. V, Sept. 1, 2013; “one black sock is pinned” — Mainichi Daily News (now The Mainichi) Feb. 25, 2014; also included in ‘Best of 2014’ collection; “counting syllables”— Presence Issue 49, Feb. 2014; “small patches of blue” — Scarlet Dragonfly Journal Sept. 8, 2022; “afternoon prayers” — The Asahi Shimbun (ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK), Sept. 16, 2022.