Terebess Asia Online (TAO)
Index

Home
Back to the Modern American Haiku Poets

John Wills (1921-1993)
Selected Haiku


coolness
hemlock shadows flicker
across the boulder


looking deeper
and deeper into it
the great beech


a marsh hawk
tips the solitary
pine


laurel in bloom
she lingers awhile
at the mirror


deep winter . . .
all day long the mountainside
in shadow


a box of nails
on the shelf of the shed
the cold


abandoned barn…
the faintest neighing
of horses


boulders
just beneath the boat
it’s dawn


sugar maple
the drawing class seated
before it


the river
leans upon the snag
a moment


rain in gusts
below the deadhead
troutswirl


dusk from rock to rock a waterthrush


water pools
among the rocks then pools
and pools again


autumn wind ...
the rise and fall
of sparrows


the hills
release the summer clouds
one by one by one


in an upstairs room
of the abandoned house
a doll moongazing


the river
drops among the rocks hammers
down the shallows


along
with the autumn leaves
this morning


hermit thrush
at twilight pebbles
in the stream


the breeze and i
making our way
through the grasses


beyond the porch
the summer night leaning out
a moment


dawn
somewhere in the mist
a catbird wakens


cornstubbe
among the stalks
. . . weeds
and the shadow of weeds


to sail
above the jewelweed
to settle


unless you have fish
the pelican has no use
for you


touch of dawn
the snail withdraws
its horns

 

Bibliography

Back Country. Statesboro, Ga.: privately printed, 1969.

"A Conversation with John Wills." By Michael McClintock.Modem Haiku 7.2
(1976): 6-8.

Cornstubble. Statesboro, Ga.: privately printed, 1971.

"Depth in Haiku." Unpublished essay, 1974.

Reed Shadows. Windsor, Ont: Black Moss/Sherbrooke, Que.: Burnt Lake,
1987.

Rive Statesboro, Ga.: privately printed, 1970.

Up a Distant Ridge. Manchester, N.H.: First Haiku, 1980.

Weathmanes. Statesboro, Ga.: Private Publication, 1970.

The Young Leaves-Haiku of S ' n g and Summer: Statesboro, Ga.: privately
printed, 1970.

http://www.millikin.edu/haiku/writerprofiles/RuffnerOnWills.html
Thomas Lynch. Intersecting Influences in American Haiku