Haiku by Diane Mayr

spring rain
mallard swims
in the overrun

July afternoon...
heated discussion of
ancient offenses

sleep interrupted
the cry of geese
flying in the dark

no heat...

cats and I share

a smaller space

Diane Mayr describes herself as "first and foremost, a public librarian." She has been at the Nesmith Library in Windham for nearly 23 years, and is currently the Adult Services Librarian/Assistant Director. She is also a writer. Her haiku has been published in the Christian Science Monitor, the Haiku Society of America's annual members' anthologies, and in Stories from Where We Live: the North Atlantic Coast (Milkweed Editions, 2000). Her other writing includes magazine articles, picture books, The Everything Kids' Money Book (Adams Media, 2000), and profiles of women written in conjunction with The Write Sisters for the “America's Notable Women” series published by Apprentice Shop Books.

I asked Diane to explain what haiku is:

"Many people think of haiku as a Japanese poem with “three lines of 5-7-5 syllables.” Sadly, this is the only way it is defined and taught in school. Many people are surprised when I tell them that haiku written in English does not have to have 17
syllables, and, it may be written in one, two, or three lines. It is a plastic form where it is more important to capture the essence of a moment, than it is to write in a rigid form. The subject of haiku is primarily nature or a season. More information about haiku can be found at Jane Reichhold's Aha Poetry page . The Haiku Anthology edited by Cor van den Heuvel (W.W. Norton, 1999) contains more than 800 haiku and senryu (a poem with haiku format, but with human nature as its subject) written in English--I highly recommend it!"

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Haiku and photo are used here with the permission of the poet. All rights reserved.