touching your photo
the need
to mouth the words

Published by

Valorie Broadhurst Woerdehoff

Valorie Broadhurst Woerdehoff, originally from Northern California, has spent the last 39 years in America’s Heartland. Her poems, both long and short forms, have been widely published in magazines, juried journals, and anthologies in the U.S. and abroad. She has taught courses and workshops on writing, and judged writing contests at the local, national, and international level, including having served as a judge for the Haiku Society of America’s (HSA) Gerald M. Brady Memorial Award. A collection of linked verse she co-authored was shortlisted for the 2019 Haiku Foundation Touchstone Book Award and received First in the Marianne Blugar Book Awards from Haiku Canada in 2020.

4 thoughts on “”

  3. Beautiful and thoughtful ku.

    old album–
    the colourful life
    in black and white

    Pravat Kumar Padhy
    Publication Credits: Frogpond, Autumn Issue 36:3, 2013
    Daily Haiku: Charlotte Digregorio’s Writer's Blog

    crossword puzzle
    I rearrange words
    in her nick name

    Publication Credits: Failed Haiku, Vol.1 Issue 4 April 2016
    The Living Senryu Anthology, 2017

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  4. The first line is so gentle and then it takes a turn with “the need”, which is so important here. The poet could have simply said, “ I mouth the words”, but this inability to speak provides a real sense of helplessness in the face of grief. Also, the reader wonders what exactly the words are, creating tension.

    Or perhaps this not about death at all but illicit love and the narrator is not permitted to express the words “I love you” aloud.

    The reader can imagine a narrative.

    marion

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