Haunted Pumpkin WalkMarmora Lion's Park 2007
At dusk we return to the park. I'm no longer a particularly social being, having many years service as a village librarian. I find I now prefer the rare, but always honest, awareness in wild animals, a few fellow crazed poets, and solitary monks. But handing out candy to children on All Hallows Eve appeals to me. I set down the plastic cauldron of candy, break a large weed bedraggled branch from the muddy river bank, and -
Chris Faiers "Cricket" November 2007 |
| Old hotrodder | |
| racing with the harvest moon | |
| . . . in the rearview | |
| owl swoops and dips | |
| soars and shares | |
| flashing white | night visit |
| from a rusted wheel well . . . | |
| jackrabbit | |
| shaman neighbour | |
| visits wildcats | |
| night wolf hunt - - - | which are extinct |
| distant flames, | |
| northern lights! |
 Chris (Christopher) Faiers was born on Hamilton Mountain, Ontario, Canada in June 1948. He began publishing haiku in 1968 under the guidance of Haiku Magazine’s Eric Amann. He had an enlightenment at age 20. Cricket was his childhood nickname and is his haijin name.At 21 he left the US, where he grew up, in opposition to the Vietnam War. For 3 years he lived in the UK. Eel Pie Dharma: a memoir/haibun is online at http://alt.venus.co.uk/weed/eelpie. His 1969 chapbook Cricket Formations is also online there. Chris has walked many thousands of miles, night and day, often in moving meditation or shamanistic awareness, on the remote trails where he lives in rural Ontario. He works as a librarian/CEO. He hopes this is his last incarnation on Earth for a long while, although it probably isn’t : ) Chris writes: I don’t have a digital camera or even a recent pic. I’d prefer a stylized pic or photo of a cricket to accompany my poems - I trust your artistic judgment to select a good cricket : ). Editor's Note: The Chinese cricket glyph, pictured right, is Simply Haiku's choice, as requested, to represent Chris. It comes from inscriptions found on tortoise shells in archaeological sites in China. We aren't sure whether this image actually looks like Chris, but we hope that it satisfies him. The glyph was taken from the Chinese Cricket Culture website. We think that the glyph carver might have been pleased at the thought of having his artwork honored several millennia after his thousand mile walk ended. |
