May 31, 2021

Linda Papanicolaou

Linda Papanicolaou

pickleweed—
the salt marsh harvest mouse
about its business
 
 
Valentine’s Day—
a little red sports car
in the passing lane
hot humid night
through the open window
nessun dorma
 
 
dune wind—
the blackened seedpods
of bush lupine
basket full of sun—
mother folds the morning’s wash
clothespin by clothespin
 
 
leaving class
we switch back into English—
rainy winter night
heartwood—
the old log’s cavity
fills with snow
 
 
a haze of moonlight
in her fossil eyes—
horseshoe crab
the nameless child
on a birth certificate—
autumn deepens
 
 
rusty park bench—
to the aether of the stars
my frosted breath

All poems copyright by Linda Papanicolaou. They may not be used for any purpose without explicit permission.

Publication Credits:
  • “pickleweed”:   Mariposa (Haiku Poets of Northern California 2006)
  • “Valentine’s Day,” Mariposa (Haiku Poets of Northern California 2008)
  • “hot humid night” (in haiga form): Modern Haiga vol. 1, ed Denis Garrison (Modern English Tanka Press 2008)
  • “dune wind”: YTHS Asilomar kukai 2009,  repub. Tracy Koretsky, Understanding English-Language Haiku April 2010
  • “basket full of sun”:  Autumn Deepens, Yuki Teikei Anthology 2010, eds. Jerry Ball and June Hopper Hymas (YTHS 2010)
  • “heartwood,” “rusty park bench”: Water Planet: Haiku, Tanka, Haibun and other poems for the Hydrologic Cycle  by Linda Papanicolaou (self-published: 2020)
  • “the sting” (haiku only): San Francisco Bay Area Nature Guide And Saijiki, ed Patrick Gallagher, Patricia J. Machmiller, and Anne Homan (YTHS: 2011)