The Heron's Nest

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Volume IV, Valentine Awards: February 2002.
Copyright © 2002. All rights reserved by the respective authors.

Overview • Readers' Choice • Most Popular Poet • Editors' Choice
Favorite Haiku • Popular Poets • Editors' Runners-up • Special Mention

EDITORS’ CHOICES

            funeral procession
            the stillness of cotton blossoms
            in sunlight

As do many of Lenard Moore’s poems, “funeral procession” reveals the author’s close ties to the land he loves. Lenard writes with reverence and wonder of the familiar earthly things that inspire and enrich his haiku: dragonflies; the red dust of a baseball field; a just-pulled melon; a basketball’s rhythm under the summer moon . . . and cotton blossoms.

With concision and tight focus, Lenard uses sensually evocative imagery to create a quietly powerful poem. “Funeral procession” sets a slow tempo, slowing further with the second line, so that the procession and time seem to stand still. With the author, I am caught in the stillness, gazing with a sense of peace at a cotton crop in bright, full bloom. In a world of impermanence, we gain comfort from the presence of familiar things that have endured through many generations. For countless Southern families, the endurance of cotton is vital to their livelihood, and the word itself is charged with rich familial history. It is typical of Lenard to go beyond the moment, to reveal a reassuring truth on a day of mourning. “Funeral procession” reminds us that nothing stays the same, while at the same time acres of brilliant cotton blossoms affirm the continuance of life.

– Ferris Gilli

            winter sunrise
            slowly
            the cockerel finds its voice

See Readers' 1st Runner-up Commentary