Tuesday, July 01, 2025
Coffin Ship
ground mist
the clicking knees of sheep
punctuate an afternoon
In the drizzly back-country of County Cork, I follow a tattered map
drawn by my great-great grandfather. From the parked rental car
I take my bearings.
As a lad of twelve, he sails from the port of Waterford in 1849.
His sister and mother die in the cargo hold, are buried at sea.
Eager and thin, he arrives in New York and serves two years of his indentured contract, then runs away to the gold mines of Montana.
naked berm
a pair of ravens peck
something shiny
I drive past lines of drying peat, stacked like tilted dominoes. Filling
my lungs with the heady scent of petrichor, I check his map again.
at a dead end
headstones too mossy to read
famine road
__________
Youmans, Rich (ed.), Contemproary Haibun, Vol 19.. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2024
2023 San Francisco International Haibun Contest: Hon. Mention
Tuesday, May 06, 2025
2024 San Francisco Rengay Contest
Interstate
Richard L. Matta, San Diego, California
Billie Dee, San Miguel, New Mexico
18-wheelers
shedding 10-ply skin
runaway truck ramp Richard
big chest, tiny waist
the chrome mudflap chick Billie
watering hole
a singing trout
behind the bar Richard
biker funeral
his brother-in-law’s
borrowed suit Billie
hot Harley pipe. . .
the squid’s new ink Richard
tattoo removal
her last two husbands
finally gone Billie
Second Place
Judges: Yvette Nicole Kolodjj, Sean Kolodji--comments
Grit and grime permeate this poem about living and dying in the fast lane, driving us into a memorable and vivid portrait that evokes Route 66 Americana. The fish-out-of-water discomfort of a biker donning an ill-fitted ‘borrowed suit’ is relatable. We watch the hot-headed squid (biker jargon for a specific type of reckless biker) impulsively get a new tattoo, new scar, or worse. The poem effectively transitions from tires shedding its skin to the undulating shapely silhouette of the ‘chrome mudflap chick,’ a symbol of the unattainable standards of feminine beauty. The poem ultimately ends with a woman shedding her tattoos and her ex-husbands. The stories of those that occupy this milieu are intriguing—the tone and theme of this poem really stood out from all the other contest entrants.
Monday, April 14, 2025
Haiku Sequence
Friday, April 04, 2025
Wild Turkey
Mike and the boys drop by so we sit up all night knockin back shots, tellin jokes and countin all the times we got our hearts broke. Old Bob tries to sing along with Johnny Cash but his dentures keep slippin and when we crack up he gets mad and stomps out the door.
It’s getting pretty ripe in here and our eyes are waterin or maybe it’s the old songs and all the stories of when we was kids and had a future or maybe it’s just them onions Mable chopped and fried with the hash browns.
Sam keeps getting sick. I walk him outside so he don’t mess up the rug and then Mike shows us his new Chevy crew cab and says we should go cruisin. We all hop in and that’s the last thing I remember.
after the fist fight
eating ripe peaches
on the back porch
Contemporary Haibun Online, 21.1, Mar 2025
Thursday, April 03, 2025
The View from Lipton Seat
Arms flung wide in cool mountain air
ribbons of chanted Heart Sutra twine
from an old slope-slung monastery
binding us with this singular moment.
the manicure
of a tea plantation
emerging
from morning mists
wild elephants
Friday, January 31, 2025
Recently Published Haikai, Jan 2025
haikuKATHA #39, Jan 2025
first dawn
the pounding in my head
in my head
last call. . .
the barkeep wipes down
one more year
taking down the mistletoe widow’s moon
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Recently Published Haibun
Long-distance Runner
final sprintpacing each breath
Through the window his nurse watches
a cardinal land on a snowy branch. Smiling,
she turns to plump the pillows.
hospice room
dawn reflected
in the bed rails
haikuKATHA #39, Jan 2025
Sunday, December 01, 2024
Bouquet Garni
Up early to beat the heat. Down the path to the tool shed
blackbirds twitter indigo into a blushing dawn.
A silhouette of Grandaddy’s old Allis Chalmers begins
to emerge. The saddleback geese are just waking.
tossed to a Guinea hen—
six new chicks in tow
Once the cherry tomatoes are staked, I weed the zucchini,
thin out a row of carrots. Now, here comes
our bantam rooster, crowing as he struts through a patch
of tarragon. Marigolds the color of traffic cones peek
from a swath of thyme. My hoe takes care of the bolting sage.
Satisfied, I scrape my boots, tie on a crisp gingham apron.
first lavender wands
a sprig of parsley
between my teeth
Contemporary Haibun Online, 20.3, Dec 2024
The Narrow-Gauge Train to Kandy
mountain mist
the tea plantation dotted
with bowing pickers
At the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, Gautama’s left incisor rests
within seven nested golden boxes behind an altar mounded
with blue lotus blossoms, the intoxicating fragrance of which
induces a state of reverence and awe amidst the clamor
of temple drums and chanting barefoot monks.
a procession
of painted elephants—
iron shackles
Contemporary Haibun Online, 20.3, Dec 2024
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Jackrabbit
quaking aspen
the dappled sway
of muttongrass
It's
my tenth birthday and I’m learning to shoot the .22 rifle.
It’s over 100 years
old, handed down from father to son
for three generations, and now to me. Even
though I’m a girl,
Daddy treats me like his worthy heir. “Act serious,” I
whisper
to myself, but I can’t quite contain my grin.
wild strawberries
gleam like pigeon-blood rubies.
. .
stinging nettles
Tuesday, August 01, 2023
San Francisco International Rengay Contest
Billie Dee, San Miguel, NM, USA
a blue heron fishes
shooting stars
Perseid shower
spinner glint mirrors
a large-mouth bass
of Milky Way
salmon eggs
a slow line
for the pandas
at Sunset Cliffs
curving over sailboats. . .
the tour boat’s wake
we paddle our kayaks past
the USS Midway
in Old Town
the Spreckels Organ
shakes Balboa Park
Friday, June 17, 2022
Split Sequence linked Haiku
This new variation on linked haiku sequences is explained by its innovator Peter Jastermsky. Try writing some yourself with a trusted partner and discover how addictive this form can be. This excerpt is copied from the Frogpond website:
__________
An Introduction to Split Sequences
(complete PDF version)
by Peter Jastermsky
Here is a sample excerpt from the opening page of this essay:
This essay will offer a brief history of the split sequence, with examples of collaborative and solo versions, as well as a brief how-to primer on writing a split sequence at the end.
I created the split sequence form in 2017. Having just written a selection of haiku and senryu, I looked at the poems in front of me and asked myself, “What would happen if I did this?” I took one of the haiku, split the three lines apart, and placed a haiku between each of those three lines. The line format became 1/3/1/3/1/3. After some tweaking, and adding a title, I realized that I had created a linked piece of some kind. But what was it?
Garry Gay created a linked verse form, the now famous rengay, in 1992. Perhaps the aspect that has been rengay’s staying power is its communal aspect. My 2017 discovery is also a linked form maintaining certain elements of renku. Over time, the rengay caught on with poets, and that communal form is strongly being written 30 years later. Linked verse brings us together. So let’s share a split sequence!
A split sequence starts once an original three-line haiku is picked that you judge will be suitable in its individual lines to split into thirds.
[essay continues for several more pages] . . .
. . .
Jastermsky, Peter. "An Introduction to Split Sequences." Frogpond 45.1, Winter 2022, 91-95.
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Space Cowboys!
Two new split-sequence linked haiku written by Deborah P Kolodji and me have been published in Eccentric Orbits #3, a speculative/scifi poetry anthology released by Space Cowboys Publishing. Many thanks to editors Wendy Van Camp and Ken Goudsward.
What
Knockers
Billie Dee, New Mexico, USA
Deborah P Kolodji,
California, USA
electric storm
darkness
your face for a split second
in a flash of light
Igor shambles
Tesla coil
the stench of fresh grave goods
clings to his cowl
into the windmill
the world tilts
air circulates
in an Abby Normal brain
[with apologies to Mel Brooks and the late greats Marty Feldman and Gene Wilder, staring in Young Frankenstein]
__________
One Arm of the Spiral
Deborah P Kolodji,
California, USA
Billie Dee, New Mexico, USA
galactic neighbors
how many light years
between your planet
and mine
the brown dwarf
dark nights together
a lack of heat
or energy
lurks
peering
into the void
feeling the gravity
__________
Here's a link to a new YouTube reading that we performed
at the opening
party for the book: What Knockers.
(scroll to 14:10)
Monday, May 09, 2022
What's a Rengay?
Here are a few articles that explain this collaborative haiku sequence form:
Michael Dylan Welch
Rengay: An Introduction
More essays on rengay
Joan Zimmerman
The Rengay Verse Form
Saturday, May 07, 2022
Contest Results
I am pleased to announce the following two rengay have placed in the 2021 San Francisco International Rengay Contest (scroll down to read judge’s comments). Many thanks to my talented writing partners, Naia and Deborah P Kolodji, to Haiku Poets of Northern California, who sponsored the event, and with deep gratitude to the judges: Julie Schwerin and Dan Schwerin.
Lineage
Naia, USA
Billie Dee, USA
prairie stillness
awaiting the foal's
first breath
drinking from the same trough
old gelding and I
curry comb
the roan stallion pins
back
his ears
horsefly weather
my bowlegged
grandfather
brushes his Stetson
cowpoke on all fours
the toddler squeals giddyup!
the farrier's wagon
lists to one side
lazy afternoon
Honorable Mention, 2021 HPNA Rengay Contest
Omicron
Deborah P Kolodji, USA
Billie Dee, USA
gray January
the only visitor
hummingbirds
the softest pink
first mourning dove song
crow caw
no more room
in the morgue
why
am I telling you this
screech owls all night
mask mandate
a peacock's reflection
the last nestling
left to feed
cuckoo chick
Second Place, 2021 HPNA Rengay Contest