Baseball haiku

Came across a great book combining two of my passions - Baseball Haiku, edited by Cor Van Den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura.

A wonderful collection of American and Japanese haiku.

A few from two great haiku poets - and fellow members of the Rochester Area Haiku Group.

Frist, Michael Ketchek:

dog days of summer
twenty-three games
out of first

struck out
the long walk home
in the dusk

summer night radio
thru the dark static
a Pedro fastball

- and then Tom Painting:

bases loaded
a full moon clears
the right field fence

the foul ball lands
in an empty seat
summer's end

And here's two from one of Japan's acknowledged haiku masters (along with Basho, Busan and Issa), Masaoka Shiki:

the trick
to ball catching
the willow in a breeze

like young cats
still ignorat of love
we play with a ball

I recommend the book to both baseball and haiku fans.