Poet Profile

William Hart

William Hart, a poet and novelist, earned a doctorate in English at USC and has taught basic writing/ESL at Los Angeles universities. His stories and poems appeared widely in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. He was the author of several poetry collections, including Paris, which won a Merit Book Award from the Haiku Society of America. Hart also wrote scripts, most often for his wife, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary filmmaker Jayasri Majumdar.

William Hart died on February 11, 2023.

crickets can’t see stars.
and stars can’t hear crickets.
that’s why there’s us

William Hart: World Haiku Review, 2011

Awards and Other Honors:

Hart's collection of haiku entitled Paris (Timberline Press, 1996), received a Merit Book Award (3rd place) from the Haiku Society of America. His individual haiku have won many awards in the US and internationally.

Books Published:

(Japanese style poetry): Monsoon (Timberline Press, 1991); Paris (Timberline, 1996); Wildcat Road (Timberline, 2000); On Cat Time (Timberline, 2004); Home to Ballygunge: Kolkata Tanka (Modern English Tanka Press, 2010).

gracefully
haphazard
butterflight

valentine's day
the roses come home
under an umbrella

breezy—
a spider's thread
warps a sunbeam

sparrows pour
through a blue hole
into our gray world

fall dusk—
in the house on the hill
all the lights are on

a hilltop city
shimmers under stars
night train

a blade of grass 
missed by the mower 
wavers in the breeze

were I a cloud
I’d want to look like
just a cloud

parked cars
green with pollen
church bells

it's just the moon again
up to the same old same old
magic

Credits:

"gracefully" - Wildcat Road (Timberline, 2000); "breezy" - On Cat Time (Timberline, 2004); "fall dusk" - On Cat Time (Timberline, 2004); “a blade of grass” – World Haiku Review, vol. 4 (2004); "valentine's day" - Modern Haiku vol. 40:2 (Summer 2009); "sparrows pour" - Modern Haiku 41:2 (Summer 2010); "a hilltop city" - Monsoon (Timberline, 1991); “parked cars”, “were I a cloud” – Cloud Eats Mountain, Red Moon Press (2013); “it's just the moon again” – Modern Haiku vol. 44.1 (Winter-Spring 2013).

Additional Reading:

Monsoon - Poems written in India and Nepal : The Haiku Foundation Digital Library;
World Haiku Series 2019 - Haiku by William Hart, translated into Japanese by Hidenori Hiruta.

Sources Biography:

William Joel Hart, Jr.