Bill Bayless 

Yountville, California, USA 

Bill has been writing poetry for about a year while residing at the Veterans Home of California, established for wartime veterans. He is a veteran of both World War II and Korea and retired as a Major. He also earned retirement as a California high school Teacher and has both a B.A. and M.A. in English. Bill has specialized in writing Haiku's which have been published in Grapevine, the Home's weekly, and in The National Library of Poetry. Married, he has a daughter, Lillie, living in Southern California. Bill says, "You could say I had a head start with Haiku's since my wife, Shizue, was born in Tokyo." 

Poetry-all Haiku's 

The Grand Canyon lives . . .
Colors pulsing through ravines
for eternity

Rain slashes downward
My umbrella leaks . . . Oh why
can't summer return? 

A soaring hawk screams
and from a distant aerie
an answering cry

Loneliness freezes
a solitary black crow
in a leafless tree

Grotesquely handsome
the arrogant pinch bug
poses on a glass shard 

A bee, a flower
transact Nature's business
. . . no holiday here

Millennium spawns
one hundred resolutions
. . . which one to keep? 

From a distant trench
a sniper fires his bullet
killing Bill Shakespeare

A gesture of love
nurtures the growth of spirit
and fends off despair

Monarch butterflies
Launched on their long migration
. . . Beauty on the wing

Crystal clear image
. . . a tree's branches, perky birds
in a rain pool

Riding a fresh breeze
a bossy, chattering Jay
adds blue to the branch

Ubiquitous fly
Exploring a Mars rocket
. . . Surely Nature jests

Withered Christmas trees
Scattered paper and ribbon
. . . O Holy Litter

Bright, piercing dawn rays
invade billowing white clouds
. . . a color riot

A freed autumn leaf
Skittering down a worn path
Seeking a new branch? 

Black jole in the sku
dewouring planets and stars
. . . Where can the prey hide? 

Life without that pain
would open my mind to living
and to tomorrow

Before . . . while we lived
We planned our days in the sun
Now shade soothes our graves