Some Haiku by Francine Porad

Some Haiku by Francine Porad

 

FRANCINE PORAD, lives, writes and paints in the Seattle, Washington area. Former President of the Haiku Society of America; editor for eight years of BRUSSELS SPROUT, an international journal of haiku and art. There are nineteen collections of Porad's published haiku, with haiku in current issues of publications in the U.S., Canada, England, Croatia, Australia, Romania and Japan. Her work is in many anthologies, including HAIKU MOMENT (Charles E Tuttle, 1993) and HAIKU WORLD: An International Poetry Almanac (Kodansha, 1996). Francine Porad is a frequent guest lecturer and presenter; has juried many national and international haiku/senryu/tanka competitions. An award winner of Itoen Tea Contest in Japan, 1998 and 1996; first prize winner of the Japan Poetry Society's International Tanka Competition, 1993; first place winner of the National League of American Pen Women's Oregon State Haiku Contest 1995. Co-editor of SUNLIGHT THROUGH RAIN: A Northwest Haiku Year, December, 1996. Judge: International People's Haiku & Senryu Contest, Canada, 1999. 




       Extracted from LADLES AND JELLYSPOONS PRESENTATIONS Haiku, Senyru,Tanka; Vandina Press, ISBN 1-887381-01-5 © Francine Porad, 1996. 


       extracted from: FROM A FLOWER GARDEN wearing the first bloom
       of the camellia tree
       the old woman

       country garden
       bordered with railroad ties
       end to end

       rhododendron buds
       child caught between
            yes and no    

       neighbour child
       at the door selling
       my cereus bloom extracted from: CIRCLING ROOTS autumn breeze     
       leaves and their shadows fill
              the roof garden  

       forsythia
       holding its arch
       windless cold

       surgery tomorrow
       we talk of flowers

       thick lilac blooms
       on the tree half
       left standing extracted from: HEARTBEATS big birthday
       the mirror no longer reflects
                       my self-image                

       echoing
       cry of an old woman
       m a m a...

       class reunion:
       filling the distance
       with words

       spellbound husband-
       his wife's version
       of their courtship 


       Extracted from
       ALL THE GAMES
       HAIKU, TANKA, ART
       Vandina Press, ISBN 1-887381-10-4
       © Francine Porad, 1997.


       steaming tea-
       old photographs
       losing definition

          steady rain
       inside a pitcher plant
          a fly floats

       poplar trees shedding
             we hunt        
         for his gravestone 

       our dialogue
       his eyes never leave
       his reflection

       folded flag
       in a Safeway bag
       fifth of July

        solitaire
          I win  
       all the games
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