Living Senryu Anthology - Swede, George

hangover…
i cling to
algorithms

©2009
Published 4 times: Haiku Canada Review, 2009 to Haiku Canada Review, 2014

on the bridge
hundreds died to defend
end-to-end graffiti

©2006
Published 3 times: Acorn, 2006 to Joy In Me Still, 2010

peering into
the deep well, two boys
talk about girls

©2005
Published 3 times: The Heron’s Nest, 2005 to Joy In Me Still, 2010

working late
i meet my loneliness
in the long hallway

©2002
Published 6 times: HI, 2003 to The White Collar Book, 2011

airport lounge
a Muslim man prays toward
the emergency exit

©2001
Published 7 times: Modern Haiku, 2002 to Whirligig, 2011

paper pickup day
the unfinished poem
sticks out

©1999
Published 5 times: Frogpond, 2000 to Modern Haiku, 2011

train to a ghost town
the historian asks to sit
facing backwards

©1994
Published 6 times: Woodnotes, 1994 to The White Collar Book, 2011

Full of good ideas I weigh no more

©1979
Published 8 times: Tweed, 1980 to micro haiku, 2014

In the town dump I find a still-beating heart

©1977
Published 12 times: Amoskeag, 1980 to Something Out of Nothing, 2015

A bottomless well within me—no sound from my fallen pride

©1977
Published 8 times: Amoskeag, 1980 to I Want To Lasso Time, 1991

As the professor speaks
only his bald spot
is illuminated

©1977
Published 5 times: A Snowman, Headless, 1979 to The White Collar Book, 2011

a flawed life
yet this morning it makes
a fine haiku

©1997
Published 5 times: RAW NerVZ, 2001 to Joy In Me Still, 2010

dating again
my sister opens the fridge
then closes it

©1996
Published 4 times: Frogpond, 1998 to Modern Haiku, 2011

A sigh from her
then one from me
two pages turn

©1996
Published 8 times: Frogpond, 1997 to Simply Haiku, 2006

A hard day
I take over the boss’s tic
when he leaves

©1996
Published 2 times: Frogpond, 1997 to My Shadow Doing Something, 1997

alone at last
i wonder where
everyone is

©1994
Published 19 times: Modern Haiku, 1994 to Haiku in English, 2013

mother’s room
only the photos of the dead
dust free

©1993
Published 5 times: The Haiku Quarterly, 1993 to loose thread, 2003

Pawnshop window
a hooker studies
her reflection

©1985
Published 7 times: New Cicada, 1986 to loose thread, 2003

From the bridge
between my hemispheres
grandfather still fishes

©1985
Published 5 times: After the End, 1986 to Joy In Me Still, 2010

The family gathered…
a tear of embalming fluid
from my brother’s eye

©1984
Published 4 times: Frogpond, 1984 to Almost Unseen, 2000

Around the eyes
of the old fisherman
permanent ripples

©1983
Published 10 times: Arc, 1984 to Haiku: The Gentle Art of Disappearing, 2009

Again, the bald barber
cuts my hair
too short

©1983
Published 6 times: Arc, 1984 to Frogpond, 2012

Country fair
the sleeping child clutches
a withered balloon

©1981
Published 4 times: Leanfrog, 1982 to Whirligig, 2010

One by one to the floor all of her shadows

©1980
Published 16 times: Cicada, 1980 to Haiku in English, 2013

Mental hospital my shadow stays outside

©1979
Published 12 times: Eye To Eye With A Frog, 1981 to Whirligig, 2010

After the search for meaning bills in the mail

©1979
Published 11 times: Poetry Canada Review,1980 to Deutsche Haiku-Gesellschaft, 2005

Full of good ideas I weigh no more

©1979
Published 8 times: Tweed, 1980 to micro haiku, 2104

At the end of myself pencil tip

©1979
Published 12 times: Cicada, 1979 to micro haiku, 2014

Leaving my loneliness inside her

©1979
Published 17 times: Cicada, 1979 to A Hundred Gourds, 2014

The anger from work in my son’s birthday balloons

©1978
Published 7 times: PW Stones, 1979 to Almost Unseen, 2000

Sharply into focus the blur of my existence

©1978
Published 6 times: Endless Jigsaw, 1978 to RAW NerVZ, 1994

Medieval town
to the worn stone steps
I add my own

©1978
Published 7 times: Endless Jigsaw, 1978 to Whirligig, 2010

Each haiku
another piece in
the endless jigsaw

©1978
Published 7 times: Endless Jigsaw, 1978 to Deutsche Haiku-Gesellschaft, 2005

Watched by her two secret moles

©1978
Published 4 times: Cicada, 1979 to Haiku Canada Review, 2014

Meeting an old friend—
the same problems
with more wrinkles

Passport check
my shadow waits
across the border

In a nightmare
unable to breathe—I swim out
through my eyes

staring back up
the open eyes of
the suicide

Hiding somewhere in this room a good idea

As he thinks
of another haiku—she thinks
of another man

Christmas Eve
the massage parlour window shows
reduced rates

In one corner
of the mental patient’s eye
I exist

A yawning abyss in my brain students taking notes

I phone myself someone else answers

A bottomless well within no sound from my fallen pride

In the town dump I find a still-beating heart

In her large blue eyes I make a small impression

One button undone
in the clerk’s blouse—I let her
steal my change

On the bus
the teenager pulls out a mirror
and adjusts her pout

At the height
of the argument—the old couple
pour each other tea

George Swede