after rain the silky black of a roadside crow

w. f. owen

Download our (CVHC-Central Valley Haiku Club) latest book of haibun and haiku at:

http://www.valleyhaiku.org/html/among_wildflowers.html

Recent publications from Frogpond Vol. 33, Number 1, Winter 2010:

in the half-light of morning

here in Hawaii in a room which really was a garage cleaned up just enough to be livable i survey the aches from the previous long day of diving for a living and it was a good job though no health insurance or even surety of a next meal i peer out to the tatami mats strung together to hide the grease underneath now full in spots with sand dragged in from the beach just inside the door a mouse sits up on its hind legs and i think for a moment to get up and shoo it away but no let it be it adds charm to the place so i drift back into sleep eyelids closed i see the ocean floor much like i did so often when spearing fish while free diving for hours i drift and that screen plays a movie of lava rock and fish flitting i dream . . . my long-time friend with a droopy face from Bell's palsy which lasts only a week he feels it will be forever maybe a stroke but he is only in his 30s so i try to reassure him and think better of joking about the times i shot fish through both eyes they twitched at the end of the spear but that was just reflex

in tree shade i ink one side of the fish

(page 57)


heat wave the scratch of a sun-dried towel

(page 25)

w. f. owen

where land meets sea a couple hand in hand

w. f. owen

time change we have the same old argument

w. f. owen

late frost the librarian's caked lipstick

w. f. owen

scratch scratch circling the dog lies down

w. f. owen

spring sun she finally hits the high note

w. f. owen

faucet dripping i remember the dream

w. f. owen