The Haiku Foundation honors the work of contemporary masters of the dual art of haiga: visual image wedded to haiku. This month’s featured artist is Jean LeBlanc.

Jean LeBlanc lives in Newton, New Jersey, though her roots are in central New England. She is an assistant professor of English at Sussex County Community College. She writes both short-form and long-form poetry. Her publications include Just Passing Through: Tanka, Haiku, Haibun (Paulinskill Poetry Project, 2007), The Haiku Aesthetic Short Form Poetry as a Study in Craft (Cyberwit.net, 2013), The Opposite of Bird: Haiku and Haibun (Cyberwit.net, 2015), and two books from Modern English Tanka Press, Where We Go (2010) and The Stream Singing Your Name (2009). Visit her blog about poetry and the creative process.

quickstep

quickstep
every
romance
should
last
this
long

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016

memory’s arc

memory’s arc —
the pears from
his grandfather’s farm
the blight, the burning
of the trees

Media: paper collage Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016

memory

memory
almost every one
a bird flies through

Media: paper collage and feather Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016

distance

distance
and now
what
oh
we turn
to stone

Media: paper collage Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2017

shadow

on
the
dance
floor
the
shadow
of
a
dream

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016

between partners

between partners
a constellation of pearls
on the dancer’s back

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016

the heron

lopsided syntax
recalling the heron
at dusk

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016

mnemonics

mnemonics —
the memorized poem
becomes us

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2014

not here

just not here
so many birds
in so many trees

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2015

end of summer

end
of
summer
this
could
be
our
last

hummingbird

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016

masterpiece

between galleries
her shadow
a masterpiece

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016

winter meadow

  winter meadow
           the grace
of broken things

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2017

wind direction

east or west
everything we once knew
about the wind

Media: digital photograph Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2014

poor posture

November
poor
posture
in
this
wind-swept
place

Media: paper collage Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016

sleeping late

sleeping
late
breath
beside
breath
both
dream

Media: paper collage Provenance: artist’s collection Year: 2016