Stone Bridge Cafe is a bi-weekly online series from Stone Bridge Press devoted to bringing readers short stories, poems, non-fiction pieces, photographs, and artwork from and/or about East Asia. For submission guidelines and info, follow the link at the bottom of this post.
This week we’re serving up a medley of small dishes: 7 haiku from poet, teacher, and songwriter RW McLellan, each of which offer subtly penetrating observations that imbue the ostensibly ordinary with hints of the sublime, the spiritual, and the ineffable.
☀☀☀
Every word has its
own emotion; grey feels like
the rain in July.
Broken fence-line with
a cow at the gate, chewing
cud, and watching me.
Chalk dust dancing in
the fluorescent light; we don't
have a word for that.
Mother forgot my
name on my wedding day. I
never said a word.
Old cinderblock next
to the shed, dead yellow leaves
crushed underneath.
Elderly man with
shopping cart full of trash bags:
the lost monk wanders.
Short form, warm weather,
no rules unless you really,
really want some rules.
☀☀☀
RW McLellan is a poet, teacher, editor, and songwriter currently writing and teaching in the woods of western Maine where he lives with his wife. His book Plenty of Blood to Spare (2012) was published by Sargent Press and his work has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, most recently in Buck Off Magazine, Lower East Side Review, and The Subterranean Review.
If you would like to submit your own work to Stone Bridge Cafe, follow this link for submission info and guidelines: http://www.stonebridge.com/sbp-blog/stone-bridge-cafe-guidelines-submission-info