f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

The newest edition of Frogpond [XXIX:3, Fall 2006] arrived at my frontdoor today and it was a pleasure to find so many friends represented, and to see haiku, senryu, haibun, essays, and more, and more from old and new favorites.

  The weather around here has had a bite to it lately, and I want to think of the frogpond a bit longer as a place where the breeze is still a friend — before it freezes over into a skating rink.  So, enjoy the poems and the warm glow of our Honored Guests, from the Fall 2006 Frogpond, which was edited with love and skill by John Stevenson. (Click on this Honored Guest Archive link to find the personal archive page of each of our Guests)

 
birthday morning
the bog
lined with iris

. . . . . . . Pamela Miller Ness

pencil in hand
I watch my sister
photograph the sunset

twilight–
smoke curls
from the curing shed

 
. . . . . . .   Hilary Tann

last day of school —
she tells me there was nothing
more to learn

dandelions–
I give someone
easy directions
. . . . . . .   Tom Clausen

 
day’s end
thumbs stretching
the overall straps

flower arranging
we gather
around the table

. . . . . . .   w.f. owen

day off–
the dog works the bald spot
in the rug
. . . . . . . . . . . Roberta Beary

poolside
the teenagers lounge
near the deepend

 
. . . . . . . . . . . Tom Painting

 
fertile ground
the gardener
takes no credit

 
pencil box
the silkworm
cool to my touch

. . . . . . . . . . .  Yu Chang

on a glad morning i am glad spring sun

rickety billboard
the ghost of a name
through the whitewash
. . . . . . . . . . .  Jim Kacian

 
night on the town–
how beautiful the girl
my wife finds fault with
. . . . . . . . . . . Lee Gurga

bare patch in the garden–
again my daughter doesn’t
answer her phone
. . . . . . . . . . .   Carolyn Hall

 And, here are some older poems, from the Essay, “A Haiku Eye on Camden,” by Ruth Yarrow (the keynote address at the 1st Annual Nick Virgilio Haiku Conference):

evening walk
after office politics
lilac scent
. . . . . . . . . . .  Randy M. Brooks, Modern Haiku XXXIV:3

 
freezing rain
tallying the strike vote
at the union hall
. . . . . . . . . . .  Ed Markowski, Frogpond XXV:2

 
ultrasound picture
slowly passed from hand to hand —
beginning of spring

toll booth lit for Christmas–
from my hand to hers
warm change
. . . . . . . . . . .   Michael Dylan Welch
“ultrasound picture” orig. pub’d Frogpond XXVI:3
“toll booth” – orig. pub’d The Haiku Anthology 1999

crowded mall
water magnifies a goldfish
in a plastic bag
. . . . . . . . . . .  Peggy Willis Lyles , Frogpond XXVI:2

schoolgirls take turns
mimicking a stutter–
March wind
. . . . . . . . . . . Barry George, Frogpond XXV:2

streetwalker
with a black eye     halo
around the moon
. . . . . . . . . . .  George Swede, Frogpond VIII: 3