A Selection of Haiku by George Swede, from Almost Unseen: Selected Haiku of George Swede

Almost Unseen: Selected Haiku of George Swede, Brooks Books, 2000.

a cold wind dead child’s horse on the bus rocks by itself the teenager pulls out a mirror and adjusts her pout 36

19 sunrise I forget my side the beetle I righted of the argument flies straight into a cobweb 44

24 unhappy wife I pedal my bike city park through puddles the stone hero’s dark side hides a drug deal 47

24 Paris pond a frog Picassos dropping stone after stone my face in the lake I keep reappearing 49

25 ocean sunset he whispers something stepping on and her earrings glow sidewalk ants the boy everyone bullies 51

28 after the abortion she weeds in the town dump the garden I find a still- beating heart 54

31 hot summer night she takes off as the professor speaks her crucifix only his bald spot is illuminated 55

31 grandfather’s old boots I take them for a walk

62 calmly talking divorce warm spring breeze underfoot the crackle the old hound runs of fallen leaves in his sleep

63 92 Divorce proceedings over wet leaves stick to my shoes graveyarduskilldeer

64 97 under the dirty, one button undone one-eyed hen a perfect in the clerk’s blouse I let her white egg steal my change

65 97 streetwalker dead roadside deer with a black eye halo a snowflake melts around the moon on its open eye

67 105 in the pawnshop window at the height a hooker studies of the argument the old couple her reflection pour each other tea

70 109 still on the bookshelf About the Author the mother-in-law’s finger line through the dust George Swede was born in Riga, Latvia on November 20, 1940 and has lived in Canada since 1947. He was Chair of the Department of 73 Psychology and the School of Justice Studies at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, leaving my loneliness inside her Canada until his retirement in 2007. He published 46 books including 29 poetry 79 collections (15 exclusively haiku) and 8 books he edited or co-edited. His work has received over 70 awards and grants and he has given in one corner readings and workshops in hundreds of of the mental patient’s eye libraries, schools and universities across I exist Canada as well as occasionally in Great Britain, Japan and the United States. In 1977, together 82 with Eric Amann and Betty Drevniok, he co- founded Haiku Canada. alone at last He is currently the editor of Frogpond, the I wonder where official journal of the Haiku Society of America. everyone is