Poet Profile

Don Wentworth

Don Wentworth earned his BA at Seton Hall University and his MLS at Rutgers University. His haiku have appeared in a variety of outlets, including Modern Haiku, Bear Creek Haiku, bottle rockets, and Rolling Stone. Since 1989, he has edited and published the small press magazine, Lilliput Review. He is the author of two chapbooks and his first full-length collection, Past All Traps, was shortlisted for the Haiku Foundation's 2011 Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards. His second full-length collection, Yield to the Willow, was published by Six Gallery Press in 2014.

Books Published: Past All Traps (Six Gallery Press, 2011); Yield to the Willow (Six Gallery Press, 2014).

Plastic flowers—
who are you
to talk?

Not one pigeon on the wrong side of the roof.

the older you are,
the nobler the truth—
fall, cherry blossom.

Focus group -
the sky, the mountains,
the sea.

The sweet magnolia
bows to all creation—
& you were saying?

Stop counting syllables,
start counting the dead.

Credits: "Plastic flowers" - bottle rockets 6:2 (2005); "the older you are" - New Yinzer (Spring 2009); "The sweet magnolia" - Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Coalicue 2 (2009); "not one pigeon" - Modern Haiku 41.2 (2010); "Focus group" - Past All Traps (Six Gallery Press, 2011); "Stop counting syllables" - Past All Traps (Six Gallery Press, 2011).