by Alison

100 square feet

with 2 twin beds shared by 3 -

I miss the old days…

by Kelly

starting and stopping

phone calls, emails, knocks on door –

accomplishing nil

by Alison

she sits by herself

flipping through picture books in

the evening garden

by Kelly

small town rodeo –

Cowboy up and getter done!

best line of the night

by Alison

a teeny tiny

turquoise cape overlooking

a big yellow barn

by Kelly

driving, windows down

me, my two dogs, Neil Diamond –

four mouths wide open

by Alison

sorting river stones

into piles of white and gray

days after the rain

by Kelly

circling our future

bound by too many unknowns –

two go-getters stuck

by Kelly

Let me be brutally honest: I do not like sports.

Before I get a load of angry emails schooling me on the benefits and life-lessons learned by participating in sports, let me clear things up a bit. My objection to sports has more to do with the hours one can waste watching them on TV and the insane amounts of money earned by professional sports stars than the actual games themselves. Heck, I grew up playing soccer. I was captain of my high school swim team. I get it. Sports breed positive self-image, foster cooperation, and encourage physical fitness. But still, I don’t like sports.

I consider it quite a feat, therefore, that I picked up and read a book called Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written About the Game, which was edited by Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura.

The book is an anthology of haiku on the topic of baseball. The first part of the book showcases haiku written by North American writers; the second half of the book features haiku by Japanese poets.

What I found most interesting about the book was that there are actually enough haiku written about baseball to merit an entire book.

I suppose, though, that this shouldn’t have surprised me. The world is full of quirky subcultures — why not baseball haiku?

And when you stop to think about it, the cross-cultural phenomenon going on here makes real sense: The Americans gave the world baseball; the Japanese gave the world haiku.

Even so, I just couldn’t work up proper enthusiasm for most of these baseball haiku.  In fact, the baseball haiku I found myself most drawn to had little to do with the game and more to do with sex appeal.

For example:

in the stands

his arm around his wife

he winks at me

It was written by a woman named Brenda Gannam, who also penned this one:

handsome pitcher

my eyes drift down

to the mound

And this haiku by the Japanese writer Imai Sei, speaks to all restless souls stuck inside on a bright, summer day:

from the classroom

one can see the baseball field

spring clouds

Find it on Amazon: Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written about the Game

by Alison

No more pizza, please!

Oh, how I crave a kitchen

and my homemade soups.