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

Yesterday, we featured haiku from the new Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Frogpond, Vol. 31:2. Unlike many other journals, Frogpond continues the helpful (and often challenging) custom of separating haiku from its sister-genre of senryu. Here are senryu by f/k/a‘s haijin family of poets you can find in the new Frogpond, followed by two haibun and a rengay poem.

– from Frogpond, Vol. 31:2 (Spring/Summer 2008) –

Labor Day
sweat on a glass
of lemonade

… by tom painting

funeral dirge —
we bury the one
who could carry a tune

…. by David Giacalone

Valentine’s Day
dust on the rose petals
in the potpourri

…. by Alice Frampton

shorter days
a river of gray
in my parted hair

… by Carolyn Hall

winter clothes worn thin
from washing —
a bit of blue sky

… by John Stevenson

smoking bar girl
inhaling
my eyes

… by David G. Lanoue

. . . HAIBUN

buttons
by Alice Frampton
I pick it up and remember the kids dragging it all around the house, losing it at the grocery stores and having to drive back to get it, how dirty it was being brought to the table and clung to in bed, how many times I had to replace the batteries, and their tiny little hands pushing the button over and over until I thought I’d go mad.

winter clear-out
he tells me he love me
the talking teddy

+ + + +

Everywhere I Look
by Roberta Beary

products promise me younger looking skin now that sixty
is the new forty in a world where no one grows old
movie stars with wrinkles look so last century

purple bouquet
it looked so good
in the store

+ + + +

. . . RENGAY

INCHES FROM PARADISE
by Carolyn Hall and Billie Wilson

radio love song
we drive closer
to the moon

roadtrip map —
mere inches from Paradise

finding a quarter
in the candy store doorway–
this azure sky

bluegrass meadows
the long-shot pony
noses ahead

Advent calendar
sneaking a peek

the new year
just seconds away
our first kiss!

Yes, I did promise to offer some editorial commentary on the new edition of Frogpond, which is the first issue edited by our Honored Guest Poet George Swede. With help from Prof. Yabut and HaikuEsq, I’m still collecting my thoughts, which I hope to share this evening or early tomorrow.

p.s. Speaking of Roberta Beary and Billie Wilson: Cornell’s Tom Clausen has, as is his wont, recently had some great company and poetry at his Mann Library haiku website. Billie Wilson was his featured poet each day for June 2008; and now Roberta Beary is the featured poet for all of July. We urge you to click and browse and visit often.

florida sunshine
mother soaks up
the shade

… by Roberta Beary – Penumbra 2007

Valentine’s Day—
he tells me I’m number one
on his speed dial

……………. by Billie Wilson from big sky: rma 2006
& Frogpond XXIX:1

More about Roberta: See “the words i meant to say,” her one-woman haiku show at Liam Wilkinson‘s beautifully-presented 3LIGHTSGallery — appearing July 1 through September 30, 2008.