Joan D. Stamm
Orcas Island, Washington
Joan began writing haiku in the early ’90s when she lived in Kobe, Japan. Her haiku have appeared in Frogpond, The Daily Yomiuri, Haiku Headlines, Mainichi Daily News, and two haiku anthologies. In 1994, she initiated a renku (36-stanza linked verse), with nine East Coast poets who attended a haiku retreat with her at Dai Bosatsu Zendo in Upstate New York. Joan kept the poem circulating until completion, three years later. Entitled “Coast-to-Coast Renga,” it was published by Tuttle in Bruce Ross’s How to Haiku in 2002.
white moth
taps the temple window
it too seeks the light
flicker of blue
appears and disappears
into the pine tree
on the backs of rocks
hikers
crossing the stream
the garden wall
cannot contain
the weeping cherry
home with flu
watching shadows
on an open book