Ed Markowski

Remarks

When I began writing haiku in earnest, several of my long time friends had plenty to say... "Why are you wasting your time?" "Haiku isn't poetry." "Haiku is poetry for little kids." "Well, you've written enough of this stuff, you really should get back to writing fiction..."

My response through the years has remained the same, I find it much easier to write fiction (and all that the short story entails) than to write haiku that succeed. The challenges I've encountered in my practice of haiku have unquestionably improved every aspect of my writing.

I've never considered myself a "haiku poet." Rather, I see myself as a writer who has written haiku and whose writing has been enriched by virtue of that practice.

To those who believe that haiku is paint by number poetry or poetry of a lesser god, I say, try it, after all, everything looks easy on TV.

I selected the 24 poems that follow to illustrate the versatility of haiku both in form and content. 23 of the poems are previously unpublished. All 24 were written between June 08 & June 09.

Ed Markowski
Auburn Hills, Michigan
5 July 09

Haiku

blossom viewing the dictator's jet black sunglasses

long kiss we re-emerge an apparition

wildflowers the blue of her eyes & no land in sight

aces & eights in retrospect father & i

seven
soldiers
dead
in
the
sun on
cnn
we
eat
ice
cream

i
   me
      mine
            zero
                  visibility

blazing heat
   the cups of her bra
      filled with cherries

summer school
two students
compare acid trips

graveside prayer in blinding snow the wind recites

white house rose garden dick cheney's scowl

summer shadows
   nine boys on a diamond
      throw gang signs

election day
   the acridity
      of burning leaves

thanksgiving ...
   holes in our coats
      too small for the wind

no one
on skid row has seen him ...
christmas morning

hanging tree
   in the white of its blossoms
      a man naps

shallow
water
minnows reconfigure the contents of
a
mind

spring ...
   dandelions yellow the dead dog's paw prints

inauguration day
   medics clean & dress
      a wounded war

wind
      my white hair echoes
               the reductive language
                        of failed revolution

fourth
of
july

in
the
panhandler's
face

a
map
of
america

mother's ashes
   my grandson whispers
      stardust

bare trees
   her husband's handshake says
      he doesn't know

spring

cherry
blossoms

kill

kim
jong

il

sunset
i'm glowing gold on the road
between
obscure      &      obsolete

Publication Credits (1st publication):

'blazing heat,' Presence 37 (Preston, England, Winter 2008); all other haiku are unpublished.

Ed Markowski lives and writes in Auburn Hills, Michigan. He has devoted the past thirty years to working with the homeless and mentally ill in and around Detroit, Michigan.

Copyright 2009: Simply Haiku