Simply Haiku, December 2003, Volume 1, Number 6

anything to declare?
I am a haiku poet
- they search my bags

summer camp
chaos organized in a
child's backpack

the wind whistles
through the bullet ridden
no shooting sign

girl talk ---
the last of the fireflies
from the doll's house

moonlit walk
fireflies flicker silver
amidst pampas grass

from his hands
cigarette paper silver cranes
take flight

slowing autumn stream
under the shade of the Basho
a stone frog

Ikebana expert
stealing autumn from
the farmer's rubbish heap

a rose of Sharon
in a four and a half tatami room
I dream of horses

autumn gold
the sound of coins
in the Bhodisattavaís box

Angelee Deodhar is a well-known Indian haiku writer and artist. Her bio statement follows:

Born just before the partition in India, schooled in the best "English" tradition I grew up in sylvan surrounds amongst the foothills of Himalaya, and fell in love with them. My father was a doctor in the India Army, and our home was full of books and music. Even during medical school (graduate and post graduate studies) I wrote short stories, articles poems - but never thought of "writing" as a career.

After working as an ophthalmologist in remote villages for almost 18 years, I developed a life threatening recurrent pulmonary thrombo embolism with repeated prolonged hospitalization. This is when writing became a lifetime and a second career. Now, a decade later, my poems, stories and haiku have been published in USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Greece, Croatia, Romania, Finland, Poland and India. I owe a lot to those who have encouraged me along the Haiku Path: Liz Fenn of the Haiku Conservatory who sent me my first copy of HAIKU HEADLINES (#63/JUN'93), Patrick Frank, Elizabeth S. Lamb, Ken Liebman, Bob Spiess, Bill Higgison, Gerald England, Ion Codrescu, Jim Cacian, Season/Carolyn Thomas, and of course, Rengé/David Prieb, who has given me this opportunity to share my work. I am indebted to my husband, a physician, and my son, for their support through many emotional storms of chronic illness.

Of all the poetic forms I find haiku most appealing. Throughout their deceptive simplicity one can share moments of absolute awareness, of truth, of images, or depths and heights of the spirit which transcend time, cultures and continents-bringing about universal peace and understanding. I believe that if more people turn to writing haiku, there would be more joy and less strife in our lives, in our world.