Poet Profile

Dan McCullough

Inspired by the poet, Chiyo-ni, Dan McCullough began writing haiku in 2000. Many of his poems reflect growing up in a small, coastal tourist town in Maine, and a love of baseball. His haiku have appeared in journals including Modern Haiku, bottle rockets, Frogpond, and Mayfly. He is a teacher/naturalist for the Massachusetts Audubon Society where he can often be found scouring the woods for mushrooms, slime molds, and anything else that gets people excited about nature. He lives with his wife, Stacey, and dreams of the day he can buy something impressive with his haiku money. Maybe a toaster.

Awards and Other Honors: Nine poems chosen for Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Written About the Game (Cor van den Heuvel & Nanae Tamura, Editors. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 2007); Mayfly cover award (2004); several poems selected for various editions of The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku; one of the poets featured in A New Resonance 3: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2003); 2nd prize in Manitou Shores poetry contest; favorite haiku in Modern Haiku 37:1 (2006).

bumper cars
all facing the same way
summer's end

winter afternoon...
deciding which moot point
to revisit

darkening clouds
the umpire's voice 
quickens

a lifetime of buttons
in the mason jar - 
winter sun

beneath
the lover's initials
sap

deep winter
several shades of gray
in the wolf scat

Credits: "bumper cars" - A New Resonance 3: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2003); "darkening clouds" - Frogpond 25:2 (2002); A New Resonance 3: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2003); Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written About the Game (Cor van den Heuvel & Nanae Tamura, Editors. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2007); "beneath" - Bottle Rockets 14 (2006); big sky: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2006 (Red Moon Press, 2007); "winter afternoon" - Modern Haiku 34:2 (2003); "a lifetime of buttons" - Modern Haiku 37:1 (2006) [Recognized as Favorite Haiku of Issue, Modern Haiku 37:2 (2006)]; "deep winter" - Modern Haiku 37:1 (2006).