still warm in the cans
the village milk wagon
making its rounds
Joseph P. Wechselberger
"In 1954 when I was eight years old and living in a small village in northern France, there was a horse-drawn wagon that came down the street with large cans of milk fresh from the cows, unpasteurized and unhomogenized, the driver ringing a bell to signal its presence. Women came from the houses along the route with pitchers and small containers, and the driver would ladle milk into them. I’ve never forgotten it."
Joseph's favorite haiku is by Elliot Nicely:
in the icu
a ventilator’s slow exhale …
winter deepens
Elliot Nicely
first publication: Presence, Issue 66
anthology:
a jar of rain: the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, 2020
Joseph says:
"This poem speaks to me directly. I have lived the moment Elliot Nicely so succinctly captures. It was a cold February in 1972. My mother lingered in a coma in ICU for ten days, hooked up to various machines that kept her temporarily alive. I spent each day sitting in the waiting room, alone, popping in and out of the ICU to spend time with her. I was with her when she died."
Waiting for Godot:
“VLADIMIR: You should have been a poet.”
Withnail and I:
“MONTY: Loyalty isn’t a matter of selection.”
NOTES
Joseph P. Wechselberger
hails from Browns Mills, NJ USA
under stars our sleeping bags touching
Joseph P. Wechselberger
Frogpond 44.1 • 2021
schoolyard
how the saplings grew
over the summer
Joseph P. Wechselberger
The Heron’s Nest Volume XXII, Number 1: March 2020
another death . . .
gathering fallen apples
for tomorrow’s pies
Joseph P. Wechselberger, USA
Cattails October 2021 page 33
check out another on page 56
Also check out:
Prune Juice Issue #30 March 2020
Elliot Nicely
in the icu
a ventilator’s slow exhale …
winter deepens
Elliot Nicely
first publication: Presence, Issue 66
anthology: a jar of rain: the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, 2020
silence at her end ...
the cord around my finger
coiling uncoiling
Elliot Nicely
Blithe Spirit, 25:4,November 2015 ed. Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy
Elliot Nicely is the author of two chapbooks:
The Black Between Stars (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017) and Tangled Shadows: Senryu and Haiku (Rosenberry Books, 2013).
He is an Ohio poet (USA).
Tangled Shadows: Senryu and Haiku (Rosenberry Books, 2013)
The Black Between Stars (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017)
Nominated for an Ohioana Book Award and a Pushcart Prize.
Randy Brooks review:
The Black Between Stars by Elliot Nicely
(2017, Crisis Chronicles Press, Parma OH) 16 pages, 21⁄4×7 ̋, perfectbound. ISBN 978-1-940996-40-0. $4.99 plus $3 shipping from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Avenue, Parma, OH 44134.
On the Crisis Chronicles Press website, Elliot Nicely notes that “We set out to develop a new work that is both startling and stark, a book which invokes a sense of disquiet and discomfort.”
The book is published backwards to English conventions with the cover and title page coming last, and the reading pages progress- ing from right to left in a reverse chronology sequence.
The title haiku is waiting / for her lab results / the black between stars. I like the way this haiku shifts from a contemplative outdoors, to the inner consideration of a medical scan.
The chapbook progresses through two reversed pages with white ink haiku on black pages for two death scenes: first prayer / of the wake / only the wine breathes and blackberry winter / in the cemetery / a fresh grave.
Small chapbooks have always been an excellent way to present a short sequence or unified series. Nicely’s The Black Between Stars excels as an example of this haiku publishing tradition.
flowering bittersweet . . .
the chances
i did take
Elliot Nicely
A New Resonance 11:
Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku
editors Jim Kacian and Julie Warther
