Poet Profile

John McManus

John is a haiku poet from the north of England. He’s the recipient of two Touchstone Awards from The Haiku Foundation and his first collection of haiku Inside His Time Machine was published in 2016 by Iron Press.

Awards and Other Honors:

Commended in the 1st International Polish Haiku Competition (2011); The Heron's Nest Award (The Heron's Nest XIV:1, 2012); The Heron's Nest Editor's Choice (The Heron's Nest XIV:2, 2012); Special Mention (Mu IV, 2012.); The Heron's Nest Grand Prize Poem of the Year and First Runner-Up (Reader's Choice Awards, 2012); The Heron's Nest Poet of the Year (Reader's Choice Awards, 2012); Touchstone Award [individual poem category] (The Haiku Foundation, 2012); Featured in A New Resonance 8, Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2013).

Books Published: Inside His Time Machine - Iron Press (2016).

summer's end
wringing the ocean
from her hair

seeing where the snow is lying naked in her arms

alone I return a shell to the sea

freshly cut grass—
the uniform he died in
sways in the breeze

remembrance day
I tell my father
about his father

the child inside her turns wild mustard

Credits:

"summer's end" - Commended International Polish Haiku Competition (2011); "alone" - Modern Haiku 44.1 (2013); A New Resonance 8, Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2013); "remembrance day" - Modern Haiku 44.1 (2013); "seeing" - Multiverses 1:1; "freshly cut grass" - Modern Haiku 43.3 (2012); "the child" - Bones, issue 1.