Legal Commentary

a fresh breeze from Modern Haiku

By David A. Giacalone

Blame it on our first spate of hazy-hot-humid weather. The f/k/a Gang has been too listless, restless, and breathless to concentrate on punditry the past couple of days. We might do some commentary later today but, until then, here are a few haiku from our Honored Guest poets that appeared in the still-refreshing Spring 2008 issue of Modern Haiku. (Vol. 39:1, Spring 2008).

flurries
telling her headstone
he cheated

…………….. by Roberta Beary - Modern Haiku, Volume 39.1 Spring 2008

girls in halter tops?
chewing my ice
with a vengeance

…………….. by David G. Lanoue - Modern Haiku, Volume 39.1 Spring

solitaire
my widowed father
lost in the shuffle

…………….. by Tom Painting

first
love
a rain-soaked raspberry
on
your
tongue

…………….. by Lee Gurga - Modern Haiku, Volume 39.1 Spring
[Ed. Note: apologies to Lee Gurga, but my weblog software seems
to be as resistant to “creative” line formatting as I’ve become lately.
The original version of this poem was published in the shape of
a cross., but I can’t get our software to replicate it.]

Modern Haiku is a journal not a genre. We wish this much-respected source of haiku poetry and essays were fully-available online. It isn’t, but you can see a sample of the haiku, senryu, and haibun from each edition at its website, plus a featured essay. Any day now, the Summer issue of Modern Haiku should be out, and available by subscription; with samples online.

update (June 8, 2008):  We hate to drop names, but yet another haiku luminary stopped by this week, leaving a thoughtful and positive Comment.  This time, it’s Charles Trumbull, the Editor of Modern Haiku., who recently produced A Guide to Haiku Publications, 2008 (pdf).   Charlie offers some useful information about his publication, and correctly points out that Modern Haiku posts a lot more of its contents online than other print-based haiku journals and publications.

time out
the setting sun
takes center field

….. by Peggy Willis Lyles - Modern Haiku (Vol. 38.1 Spring 2007)

rising gas prices?
an attendant changing numbers
in a pouring rain

…… by Michael Dylan Welch - Modern Haiku (Vol. 36:1, Spring 2005)

Full post as published by f/k/a . . . on June 08, 2008 (boomark / email).