cloud cover . . .
plum blossoms reach out
to the sky
Author: Margaret Dornaus
Margaret Dornaus holds an M.F.A. in literary translation from the University of Arkansas, where she received the Lily Peters Poetry Translation Award as well as being twice nominated for an Associated Writing Program essay-writing award. Winner of the Tanka Society of America's 2011 International Tanka Contest, her tanka, haiku and haibun have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including: A Hundred Gourds; Atlas Poetica; Modern Haiku; Moonbathing; red lights; Ribbons; and others. Her first book of poems, Prayer for the Dead: Collected Haibun & Tanka Prose, received a 2017 Merit Book Award from the Haiku Society of America.
spare change
found in his pockets . . .
this too short life
the way
she chooses to die . . .
flowering plum
thunderclap —
the past tense he uses
to describe me
autumn morning
the smell of fresh rain
in my coffee
skywriting all the disappearing words between us
(Second Place, 17th International Kusamakura Haiku Competition)
barely
longer than a cardinal’s call . . .
winter haiku
job offer–
champagne and fried fish
on the table
all the ingredients
we need to start fresh
heat lightning the way your hand rests on mine