Heartland Haiku

I learned about haiku in third grade but lived happily for the next half century without writing one. Haiku started showing up unaccountably a couple years ago. I didn’t have the heart to turn them away, but what started as an innocent hobby now borders on obsession. For peace of mind, let’s claim Heartland Haiku is healthy self-expression for a sprightly septuagenarian, OK? All verses in my book are oldfangled five-seven-five, but I’ve stretched the traditional haiku framework so echoes of Aesop, the Bible, Shakespeare, Poor Richard, Black Hawk, Mark Twain and Burma-Shave have room to ricochet. Life is so fast now that haiku length may match our full attention span. Feel free just to sample the prairie psalms, proverbs and postage-stamp portraits in Heartland Haiku. Or stay as long as you please--you’ll always be welcome. Born in Iowa along the Mississippi River, Lawrence Eyre holds a B.A. from Yale in American Studies. He has taught history and coached tennis for thirty years at Maharishi School in Fairfield, Iowa. The United States Professional Tennis Association named him national high school coach of the year in 2009.