Margaret Chula

Once Again

I open the bedroom window to cricket song on this night in early spring. They are celebrating new life, albeit in a minor  key. I bathe in their chords of Mozart after a winter of coyote howl and Mahler angst. Blossoms of apple trees glow against  bare limbs. Quiet explosions—soft, pale, and evanescent.

unclenching my fist
my heart line
overflows with rain

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About the Author

Margaret Chula has been writing haiku, haibun, and tanka for over forty years. Her haibun memoir, Firefly Lanterns: Twelve Years in Kyoto, received a NYC 2022 Big Book Award in Multicultural Nonfiction. Her new haibun chapbook, Clothes to Go Out In, was recently released. Maggie lives in Portland, Oregon, and enjoys hiking in the Columbia River Gorge.

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