Best Icehouse Poems

Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui, translation by Michael R. Burch

To prepare for my voyage beyond,
let...

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"The Beautiful Drowning" 

Barefeet 
dancing in the sand
the warm ocean licks
insolent toes 
to its command
whispers its secrets
calling us in deeper 
indolently caressing 
our naked futures away 
legs wrapped around 
warm bodies, we are far gone
way past the markers 
we swim like koi 
treasure sought, a...

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I sat upon an old stump,
Nautical twilight swelling like dark cotton,
As brown leaves swirl'd in an autumn breeze,
Piling around my leeward boots,
A sound, good memory from childhood,
The sound only autumn leaves can make,
As they blow down a dusky street,
I take all that in, distracted,
As winter...

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