Magnapoets Japanese Form

 
Adelaide

after the argument
I eat his
ice cream

first published in bottle rockets (I think)

 

deserted beach -
a pebble in the Cat's Cradle
of a hopscotch

**

plage déserte -
un galet dans le ciel
d'une marelle

almost dark
the answering cry
of an eaglet

 

First published in Acorn, Oct/09

snowflakes
falling upon snowflakes
upon snowflakes ...


published in Haiku News

snowflakes
the perfect fit
of our hands

 

first published in The Heron's Nest

late dusk-
flickering sunlight
in the ravine
I wait for fireflies
to fill the void

Adelaide B. Shaw
Tanka Splendor Awards, Oct. 2009

 

a bowl

of ripening pears...

how quickly

tomorrow becomes

today

 

 

 

morning glory

I tell her everything

will be all right

[First published in Notes from the Gean]

Spring wind

unfolds my memories book…

between leaves

a dry lime leaf

and my lost youth 

 

Published GUSTS NO.9

frost on the Daphne
the way he says
Never mind

first published in The Heron's Nest

halloween party

in my Don Juan costume

I'm taken for Zorro

Lake Ontario water
cupped in my hand --
Formosa’s moon

Note:

In 1544, a Portuguese ship sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means "Beautiful Island."

 

Happy Halloween, Everyone.

Adelaide 

BREEZE IN THE LILIES

The breeze comes in from the south, moving over the cornfield at the edge of the cemetery to lightly stir the lilies on Sarah’s casket. Sarah’s son Tom puts his head in his hands as the preacher says something about Sarah departing for a better life. Tom had just buried his wife the week before after she lost her battle with cancer. Now he’s burying his mother.

a dandelion seed
gyrates on spider silk
then floats away

I don't know Tom that well, but well enough to know I like him and well enough to know he’s a good man. I wonder what it must be like to lose the two most important women in your life, both within a week. Tom’s leathery face holds little clue, except for the glistening streaks. He tells me it was a “double whammy” - his sunken eyes tell me it was far more.

darker today
this shadow across
her stone

 

each footprint shaped

from within and without --

autumn rain

removes the uncertainty

of my steps

 

 

 

buried earth
a silver carpet --
maples and I
gaze at the barrenness
we see in each other
 

published in Gusts

at the blood clinic
an assortment of ailments
the woman
across from me
her skin a jaded green

first published in Modern English Tanka