introduction

notes about this work:

it is dedicated to the idea that the web can help us carry an undertone, much as kigo provide readers an undercurrent feeling. while here, kigo are linked, so are geography words; this is based on the assumption that while, in early haiku, all poems were assumed to be set in japan, now, in the electronic era, one must be clear where all poems are set. so, in the sense that every work has a kigo, every work must also give away its location; this is an undercurrent, best represented by links that lead the reader to dead-end but predictable images, clear feelings of both season and location.

not that i'm an expert; i've done it this way only to try out the uses of links. in fact there are many possibilities.

also, i have deliberately (though not always successfully) tried to stick doggedly to a 5-7-5 format, although I realize it is quite out of favor with american haiku poets. this is entirely personal, and has little to do with what i mentioned above. to me it's a discipline to make poetry in a single given framework, and 5-7-5 is as good as any; i have no better place to start, and i can at least find others who have done the same. i'm not attached to it completely; it's just the format i'm using at the moment, and, though it is associated with traditional japanese haiku, I am not necessarily trying to make any other statement with it.

old versions

shade of mesquite tree,

view of mesquite exit road sign -

breeze, not from diesels




nice cop, warm ride, says:
hitchhiking in wyoming's
its own punishment
(~05)





feel this macon heat
you'll know why those brothers kicked
it when they played blues
(8-05)