Poet Profile

H. Gene Murtha

H. Gene Murtha, poet and naturalist, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He served as tanka editor of a short form poetry online publication Notes from the Gean and was a member of The Haiku Society of America, The Tanka Society of America, Haiku Oz, the Pennsylvania Poetry Society, Mad Poets Society, and The Nick Virgilio Haiku Association. He sponsored and judged the first haiku contest for the inner city children of Camden, New Jersey for the Virgilio Group.

Awards and Other Honors: Murtha's work was included in Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years [edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, and Allan Burns] (W.W. Norton and Company, 2013). He was one of seventeen poets featured in A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2009). Some of his awards include: Readers Choice Award, White Lotus 3 (2006); Special Mention, The Heron's Nest Valentine Award (2003); Special Mention, The Heron's Nest Valentine Award (2006); and Runner-up, Innovative Category, Haiku Now! (The Haiku Foundation, 2010).

Books Published: Memorial Day (Golden Swamp Warbler Press, 2005)

first warm day 
      a robin works 
                 the infield

getting it right
the first time
the moon

summer haze--
a crow flaps free
of the asphalt

hard frost
a dumpster's lid
slams shut

fishing
where my brother stood—
twilight chill

snowed in . . .
fire wraps
around a log

Berlin Wall
a smooth stone
in my pocket

morning chill
a child's shadow
moves thru mine

when you think
you've heard it all—
brown thrasher

spring mist--
a mallard paddles
through our stillborn's ashes

Credits: "first warm day" - The Heron's Nest XVII:3 (2015); "summer haze" - Frogpond XXVII:1 (2004); A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2009); "fishing" - The Heron's Nest 8:3 (2006); Special Mention, The Heron's Nest Valentine Award (2006); "Berlin Wall" - The Heron's Nest 6:9 (2004); A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2009); Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years [edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, and Allan Burns] (W.W. Norton and Company, 2013); "when you think" - The Heron's Nest 11:4 (2009); " getting it right" – The Heron's Nest XVI:3 (2014); "hard frost" - The Heron's Nest 11:1 (2009); "snowed in" - The Heron's Nest 10:1 (2008); A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2009); "morning chill" - The Heron's Nest 10:4 (2008); A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2009); "spring mist" - The Heron's Nest 4:11 (2002); Special Mention, The Heron's Nest IV Valentine Awards issue (2003); Mad Poet's Review 17; Memorial Day (Murtha, Golden Swamp Warbler Press, 2005); A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2009).