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TPCReview Issue 001

Alex O. Bleecker

haiku kansai

sober grey morning
grey man on grey bicycle
                              cigarette ashes

searching in circles
for basho’s shrine till the crow
told me to look down

observing custom
i clapped twice               waited until
nothing happened

basho’s crow followed
me to the riverside park
                    shamed me for smoking

i played the fool by
wasting money on your flight
                              forgot you had wings

temple was quiet
until the french arrived               then
lawnmower started

chikou’s mandala
               night scene without moon except
the buddha’s face

Alex O. Bleecker is a high school English teacher living & working in Hsinchu, Taiwan. A member of the Seattle-based RE DRUM poetry collective and co-founder of the Breadline performance series, his work has appeared in various print and online journals, including his poetry blog Hypothetical Miracles. His first full-length collection of poems entitled Cleave (Cyberwit) was published in 2022. His new collection, When Light Exits a Medium: Responding to Neruda (Carbonation Press), is due out later this year.