Poet Profile

Cor van den Heuvel

Have been trying to write haiku and senryu since learning about them in 1958 in San Francisco. Edited three editions of The Haiku Anthology: Doubleday 1974, Simon & Schuster 1986, W.W. Norton 1999. Co-edited with Nanae Tamura: Baseball Haiku, W.W. Norton 2007. President of The Haiku Society of America, 1978.

Awards and Other Honors: The Masoaka Shiki International Haiku Prize, 2002.

Books Published: Self-published seven chapbooks (all Chant Press, New York, NY):  sun in skull (1961); a bag of marbles (1962); the window-washer's pail (1963); EO7 (or Christ should have carried a pearl-handled revolver) (1964); Bang! You're Dead (1969); dark (1982); and Puddles (1990).  Single Island Press, Portsmouth, NH, published A Boy's Seasons: Haibun Memoirs (2010).

late February
stuck to the tree, a snowball
in the strike zone

the white hydrangeas                  
have all turned shades of blue
a stranger at the door

spring rain
a sprig of plum blossom
in my shot glass

city street
the darkness inside
the snow-covered cars

a drop of water
floats by the canoe
on a curled leaf

a carousel horse
alone in the museum
winter evening

old baseball card
the blue of the sky
above the pitcher’s head

deep snow
the amusement park lit
by a single bulb

Credits: "late February" – Modern Haiku 40:1 (© 2009 by Cor van den Heuvel); "spring rain" - Suspiciously Small (Spring Street Haiku Group, © 2010 by Cor van den Heuvel); "a drop of water" - The Pianist’s Nose (Spring Street Haiku Group, © 2001 by Cor van den Heuvel); "old baseball card" - Suspiciously Small (Spring Street Haiku Group, © 2010 by Cor van den Heuvel); "the white hydrangeas" – Modern Haiku 41:2 (© 2010 by Cor van den Heuvel); "city street" - Five O’clock Shadow (Spring Street Haiku Group, © 2000 by Cor van den Heuvel); "a carousel horse" – Modern Haiku 39:3 (© 2008 by Cor van den Heuvel); "deep snow" – Bottle Rockets 2:2 (© 2001 by Cor van den Heuvel).