cicada dusk
this death poem
will never do

Published by

Christopher Patchel

Christopher Patchel is an award-winning haikai poet whose work has appeared in leading journals, contests, and anthologies over the past twenty years. His collection, Turn Turn, was a Touchstone Distinguished Book Award finalist. From 2016 to 2018 he was editor of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America. Apropos of his profession as a graphic artist, he created the cover art for Frogpond from 2012 to 2018.

3 thoughts on “”

  1. cicada dusk
    this death poem
    will never do

    —Christopher Patchel

    My time with cicadas, so loud, all I could hear was fighter jets flying too low over Queensland from Base Amberley!

    Dusk thankfully drew quieter from airbases and the wee creatures!

    It's hard to justify a good death poem or anything else in writing against such impressive volume!

    Thankfully Japan was easier!

    samurai legends —
    tsukutsukubôshi cicadas
    at Sumadera

    Alan Summers
    World Haiku Review, Japan Article: "Vending machines and cicadas"
    by Alan Summers (2003)

  2. fresh mown lawn smell
    breezing
    cicada song

    death poem
    Un finished
    again

    Weird, I’m reading this for first time on Aug.3rd. but on the day this posted I had had some beers and these were two of my doodles. I guess it’s that time of year.
    Of course we’re not having Brood 10 this year so sound is more trickled than roared.

  3. i've never quite been aware of 'cicada dusk' until this week. i just thought cicada + time of day, sounds like 'husk' -cicada shell. But this week and this poem have really opened my ears.. fully aware of it now. awesome.
    p.s. freed a big cicada from 2nd floor apt. hallway today. it let me slip the cobwebs off its wings and then phewww out the window.

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