f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

. . Yesterday’s weather here in Upstate New York was beyond picture perfect — pleasing all of our senses — and beyond my ability to capture adequately in words.  Hoping to savor every moment of the gorgeous day, the f/k/a Gang spent the last Saturday evening of Summer 2008 sitting on a brand new bench on the banks of the Mohawk River here in Schenectady’s Stockade neighborhood.   My haijin friends couldn’t join me in Riverside Park last night, for the summer’s penultimate sunset, but here are a few of their poems of the season, with images I snapped on September 20, 2008 between 7 and 8 P.M. (click on the images to enlarge).

end of summer–
mountain wildflower
pressed in her diary

…………… by Randy Brooks from School’s Out

cut grass
i sweep away
summer’s end
… by Roberta Beary – The Heron’s Nest (Sept. 2005)

summer’s end
riding a borrowed bicycle
past the graveyard

…….…… paul m – finding the way: haiku and field notes (2002)

. .  . .

summer’s end
waves disappear
beneath the pier

…. by paul m. – Crinkled Sunshine, HSA Members’ Anthology (2000)

the home team
math’matically eliminated…
autumn equinox

…… by ed markowski

end of summer
the rain arrives
without thunder

end of summer
the warmth
of a borrowed shirt

……………. . by John Stevenson – Upstate Dim Sum (2003/I)

summer’s last sunset —
baked apple
for dessert

… by dagosan

every mannequin
wearing green flannel…
autumn equinox

…. by ed markowski

. . . .

a wasp nest
out of reach of the hose
autumn begins

. . . by paul m. – The Heron’s Nest (VIII: 3, Sept. 2006)

autumn equinox –
awaking to
summer’s last cricket

… by dagosan – Nisqually Delta Review

autumn begins–
lying down, looking at
snowy mountains

.…………by Kobayashi Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

…. by Matt Morden — Morden Haiku (Sept. 19, 2008)

the slow creak
of the porch swing
late summer dusk

at dusk   summer ends  on the pier

… by w.f. owen –(haiku notebook, Lulu.com, 2007)

A year ago today, we had the honor to reproduce and present here at f/k/a the entire contents of the haiku and tanka chapbook “the hands of women” by Pamela Miller Ness. The loving commemoration of the “needlewomen” in Pamela’s life is a lovely reminder of the changes and constants in the cycles and seasons of our lives.  Here are three of the ten poems you will find in the hands of women:

hurricane over
the click click click
of knitting needles

the wee hours 
weaving loose ends
into my knitting

vigil
she knits a scarf
the color of sky

… by Pamela Miller Ness – The Hands of Women
(Lily Pond Press/Swamp Press, August 2007)

Finally, Marcel Marceau’s death as autumn arrived last year inspired this poem by dagosan:

autumn equinox
not even the mime
can balance the egg

……………. by dagosan [In mem., Marcel Marceau, Sept. 23, 2007]