spring scents
my dog and I walk
through different worlds


springtime
a couple of chipmunks
in the stone wall


Finding a fault
in the universe...
A rabbit's heart

The reviewer of Karkow's collection seemed to miss the point of the second haiku--which is understandable. I would have had it, "springtime/ a couple of chipmunks/ staying inside the stone wall." But, who knows? Maybe Karkow only intended a picture of two chipmunks--now visible 'cause it's spring. If you're going to do wry observations, you gotta try for fresh ones. Not that my interpretation--that it's spring but the chipmunks are staying indoors, anyway--is much fresher, but I think it's a little fresher.

I included the third haiku because I'm mean-spirited, I guess. But also because I can't stand dangling participle haiku. I don't think Galmitz wants us to think the rabbit's heart is finding fault with the universe--the poet is. Because rabbits die, sometimes cruelly. If you're going for wry, avoid sentimentality, expecially sentimentality that's been expressed as you express it ten millions time previously, in and outside of haiku. If you can't stand not to express your disappointment with the universe in a haiku about a dead rabbit, I think the following works better than Galmitz's, mainly by avoiding the dangling participle: "Stroll through woods/ the cosmos nears pefection in . . ./ to a rabbit's heart."