Poet Profile

Brian Kates

Brian Kates had a 40-year career at the New York Daily News, where he was, variously, an investigative reporter, columnist and editorial page editor.
He began writing poetry in his early 70s. His haiku/senryu/haiga have appeared in Modern Haiku, Frogpond, cattails, bottle rockets, hedgerow and Prune Juice. Other poetry has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Third Wednesday, Common Ground Review, Ekphrastic Review and elsewhere.
Brian also has taught at New York University, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and Purchase College.

Awards and Other Honors:

Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award for editorial writing and a Daniel Pearl Award for Investigative Reporting, among other honors. His book, The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady, the biography of a homeless woman slain on the streets of New York, was a finalist for an Edgar Allan Poe Award in nonfiction.

Books Published:

The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1985).

spring fern
a fiddle 
poised to play

changing my grandson’s diaper
I discover
the fountain of youth

homemade facemasks
drying on our clothesline
              —pandemic prayer flags

a spider hides
in Grandma’s doily
crocheting

today’s ensō
so well-rounded
I’m jealous

this morning’s ensō
takes me back
to where I started

Credits:

“spring fern” – bottle rockets No. 47, August 2022; “changing my grandson’s diaper” – Prune Juice No. 38, December 2022; “homemade facemasks” – Frogpond vol. 43:3 Fall 2020; “today’s ensō” – Modern Haiku vol. 50.3 Autumn 2019; “this morning’s ensō” – Frogpond vol. 42:3 Fall 2019.