re:Virals 70

Welcome to re:Virals, The Haiku Foundation’s weekly poem commentary feature on some of the finest haiku ever written in English. This week’s poem was

     crayon map
     my son shows me the way
     to Neverland
          — John McManus, The Heron’s Nest XIV:1 (2012)

Nancy Rapp speaks for all of us when she writes:

John McManus’s haiku is one of my favorites. Through the unique and pristine art of a child, the ever living child in us makes contact. Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, there’s a bit of him in all of us. Children experience everything for the first time. This us exactly what haiku brings to my life.

And Marion Clarke says, simply:

John McManus is so skilled at writing about his first-hand experiences with his children and I remember having a tear in my eye when I read this one for the first time. Magical!

As this week’s winner, Marion chooses next week’s poem, which you’ll find below. We invite you to write a commentary to it. It may be as long or short, academic or spontaneous, serious or silly, public or personal as you like. We will select out-takes from the best of these. And the very best will be reproduced in its entirety and take its place as part of the THF Archives. Best of all, the winning commentator gets to choose the next poem for commentary.

Anyone can participate. A new poem will appear each Friday morning. Simply put your commentary in the Contact box by the following Tuesday midnight (Eastern US Time Zone). Please use the subject header “re:Virals” so we know what we’re looking at. We look forward to seeing some of your favorite poems — and finding out why!

re:Virals 70:

     the b-flat 
     fades from her piano . . .
     autumn wind
          — Maya Lyubenova, Under the Basho (2014)