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Michael Fessler (1944-)
Selected Haiku

the page-finders
of my father's Daily Missal
losing their colors

shivering on the roof
I rub my palms together
meteor shower

untrimmed hedge
subtle tints
at winters end

mini-fountains
sprouting from my shoes
the monsoon

limited space
fireworks move
the darkness aside

hesitating
at the chalk tray
suddenly older

first tremor . . .
everyone in English class
speaking Japanese

winter night
a wad of paper
uncrumples

rainy season
up late on a Friday night
old Dylan tapes

the hydrangeas
have turned
this haiku blue

rain hits a clear
plastic umbrella
fear of documents

August heat
umpire and manager
nose to nose

spring slowly
turning into summer
hazy ferris wheel

blossoms
wind
shifting

tomato
little
buddha

Michael Fessler is an American writer and teacher who has been living in Japan since 1986. He was born in Kansas and brought up in Kentucky. His work has appeared in periodicals such as the Kyoto Review, Harvard Review, Poetry Northwest, Atlanta Review, Xanadu and others. He has won second prize in the KO Haiku Magazine Nagoya Kyoiku Inkai, and two third placings for the Harold G. Henderson Award organised by the Haiku Society of America. In 2004, Bottle Rockets Press, Wethersfield, Connecticut, published his chapbook of haiku, The Sweet Potato Sutra, a 35 page collection of 44 haiku, senryu, and small poems, not to mention four haibun.