Haiku by André Duhaime translated into English by Dorothy Howard

extracted from `Orange Peels haiku'
by André Duhaime
(Les editions Asticou enrg., 1987)
ISBN 2-89198-072-7


andre's pic André Duhaime was born in Montreal (Canada) in 1948. He has lived near Ottawa since 1971. He is a teacher of French. Since the beginning of the '80s, his literary activities have been centered on Japanese poetical forms, haiku, tanka and renku. His main publications are: Haïkus d'ici, haiku (Asticou, 1981); Haïku: anthologie canadienne/Canadian Anthology, with the collaboration of Dorothy Howard (Asticou, 1985); Pelures d'oranges/Orange Peels, haiku, translation by Dorothy Howard (Asticou, 1987); Au jour le jour, haiku (Noroît, 1988); Voyage parallèle/Parallel Journey, renku, in collaboration with LeRoy Gorman (Asticou, 1989); Traces d'hier, tanka (Noroît, 1990); D'une saison à l'autre, renku, in collaboration with Lisa Carducci (Loup de Gouttière, 1993); Cet autre rendez-vous, selected haiku (David, 1996). He has also published two books of haiku for children, with drawings by Francine Couture: Le Soleil curieux du printemps et Châteaux d'été (Asticou, 1990).

                       fog
only time enough to follow
the road's yellow line




grandpa telling a story
  my eldest
  watches the clock




           in her drawer
the doll I've thrown out
   three times   already




   Christmas eve
in my jacket
last year's cigar




Christmas holidays
 the foreign smell
 of our new clothes




last day of March
     pine needles
 under the carpet




   that friend
I wait for him to first
speak of his deceased son




orange peels
 the kids have come
           and gone




  grey afternoon
the children talking
as if it were already evening




    seven years old
so many more candles
    in the windows




that child
     ah   her boots
     on the wrong feet




grandfather and a post
hold the rope
          the girls skip




my daughters asleep
tucked in with the shells
  collected early this morning




spring morning
    tick-tack-toe
    on my dirty car




         my eldest
locked in her bedroom
   with my old Beatles




             silence
winter tires
on newly fallen snow




    icy sidewalk
    step by step
in another's footstep




in his loose black suit
         the old man
in front of the building named after him




snow falling on the roof
          of a burnt house
               black hole




a sparrow lands
      scattering
      some dead leaves




spring cleaning
under some forgotten socks
      my old wedding band




        shivers
what's your nail writing
 on my sunburnt back



                  sun
in the antique glass flowers
          the dealer snoozes




against the window
  I read her letter
  through the envelope




everywhere
          dandelions
a bouquet on my table




      sunny March afternoon
hellohellohellohellohellohellohello
from three youngsters on the street




        for hours
the puzzle bridge
  projecting into nothingness


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