Poet Profile

Richard Straw

Richard Straw, a technical editor, has lived in North Carolina since 1984. A native Ohioan, he has also taught college composition, copyedited and proofread for journals, graduated from Ohio State University with a BA and MA in English literature, and edited Pine Needles, a North Carolina Haiku Society newsletter.

Awards and Other Honors: Featured in A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2009).

Books Published: late afternoon bum [Haiku Canada Sheet] (1988); A Hiker Sees His Shadow [an eight-page, self-published haiku sequence] (2001); Opening a Window [a self-published haiku trifold] (2005); The Longest Time [a self-published chapbook of 35 haibun] (2009).

a dog walker
relaxes the leash
autumn leaves

cold, gray sky
the bird I turn to hear
flies away

hard to say
what's living or dead
white lichen

hospice hallway
his visitors talk about
someone else

in the cold
just a few words
and moonlight

a few heads nod
as a vision is retold
the candle's flame

Credits: "a dog walker" - Acorn 17 (2006); hard to say" - Frogpond XXX:2 (2007); "in the cold" - Frogpond XXX:2 (2007); "cold, gray sky" - Asahi Weekly (April 4, 2008); "hospice hallway" - The Heron's Nest X:2 (2008); "a few heads nod" – [based on Acts 11] The Heron's Nest X:4 (2008).