I’m happy to share some of my friend Cara Holman’s haiku as my third National Poetry Month guest poet. Cara lives in Oregon and is a frequent contributor to online and print journals that feature her lovely haiku, haibun and tanka, as well as an avid kukai participant and winner. She also writes prose. (Her essays have appeared in several of the Chicken Soup series.) To sample more of Cara’s work, visit her blog, Prose Posies, where she too is sharing guest posts in honor of National Poetry Month.
Here’s what she has to say about why she writes haiku and three of her spring haiku:
“After a breast cancer diagnosis in 2006, I joined a writing group for women cancer survivors. I had no expectations, beyond hoping it would be therapeutic for me. It was! Although we wrote prose, I was reintroduced to poetry, since we started every meeting by reading a poem or two from one of Garrison Keillor’s anthologies. Soon I started writing poetry, as well as prose. I can’t say precisely how or when I rediscovered haiku. Somehow in the process of seeking out online poetry sites, I discovered online haiku journals and kukai contests. Now I’m hooked. The haiku community has been so wonderful and supportive. I attended my first haiku conference last year, and have had the pleasure in seeing a number of my haiku and related forms published in online and print journals.”
–Cara Holman
dreamless sleep . . .
drifting in and out
of birdsong
A Hundred Gourds 1:1, December 2011
garden spider–
weaving the dew
into its web
First Place, Shiki Kukai, November 2010
barefoot summer. . .
a drop of honeysuckle
on my tongue
Standing Still: The Haiku North America
2011 Conference Anthology
[Sponsored by Couplets–the brainchild of Joanne Merriam of Upper Rubber Boot Books–this exchange is just one of many going on during this month-long celebration. I’ll be hosting several haiku/tanka poets here this month.]
Haiku-doodle 
Loved that last one! Thank you Cara for sharing your poetry with us. And thanks Margaret, for bringing us Cara Holman!
Thank you, Sanjukta, as always . . .
Thank you for hosting me, Margaret, and thanks Sanjuktaa, for your kind comments. How fun to be visiting with each other around the web. 🙂
It’s my pleasure, Cara . . . Thank you all for visiting!
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I love Cara’s poetry. Thanks for featuring her, Margaret.
Thank you, Terri. 🙂
barefoot summer. . .
a drop of honeysuckle
on my tongue
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this one, Cara. Absolute loveliness! Thank you, Margaret, for featuring Cara today.
I wrote this one for April 2011 NaHaiWriMo, Marie Elena. It was workshopped online, at the Bend HSA quarterly meeting, and then again when I submitted it to the conference anthology. I have never had a haiku receive more attention. 😉
Cara Holman, is my blooming flower who’s sweet perfumed fragrance fills my heart with her written words. Days spent with her, writing and listening to her readings were a treasured joy! Thank you for thinking of Cara Holman, Margaret!!
Love this one Cara! It makes me think of our wet Springs here in the Pacifc Northwest;
garden spider-
weaving the dew
into its web – Cara Holman
Thank you, Lisa. 🙂
I’ve always loved Cara’s haiku, which i first read at NaHaiWriMo where we met. It feels smooth like silk, for me, yet deep like velvet–I touch it and my fingers sink into a web of many colors, many meanings. In this selection she chose to showcase, I love ‘garden spider’ the most; it has all the qualities of her writing I’m drawn to. Mil gracias, loads of thanks, Margaret, for this page!
Thank you, Alegria. You always have such a way with words. I am honored. “garden spider” is one of my favorite haiku because it is something I see so often here. It was also featured in an oshibana display last June at the HSA quarterly meeting in Bend, my first haiku conference. It is in front of the red picture in the center of the table, in this picture Michael Dylan Welch took:
https://plus.google.com/photos/109619827670013506962/albums/5617610939533399953?banner=pwa&gpsrc=pwrd1#photos/109619827670013506962/albums/5617610939533399953/5617614536389007634
This is great fun finding all my poet friends on each others blogs! Thanks for being part of it, Cara and Margaret! 🙂
Thank you, Kirsten. It is fun, isn’t it?
Yes! I can hardly keep up! 🙂
It was a real pleasure reading your haiku.
Nicely done!