Implacable Time and the Long, Slow Pull of the Irresistible Sun
by zolo

If I were to stretch a length of rope good and tight from the tip
of its topmost branch down to a gnarled, protruding root, I see from
my sunlit chaise lounge, the oak tree in my side yard would make
a perfect bow.

Why such weaponry would grow from the earth is a mystery, but I like
to think of it as a pre-emptive tool of Indian summer, a native spell to ward off
autumn chill, a kind of chant solidified into hard wood and modeled on the simple
sentence . . . with bow as noun, pull as verb, and all the arrows, adjectives
forged through time.

Of course, it would fire enormous arrows: royal, mighty and ancient, at the first
sign of a chilly wind . . . warning shots of clear, hot light, long shafts bigger than
telephone poles . . . and always in the same direction, due north, from a break
in the only cloud in the southern sky.


mosquito,
...an easy kill;
......autumn dusk

Zolo (John Polozzolo) born in 1949, graduated from the University of Georgia, and received a Bachelor's Degree in English and a Master's Degree in Education. As the director of a national seminar company specializing in adult education, he lectured throughout the nation from 1985 through 2000.

He started painting and putting words to paintings long before kindergarten, and began incorporating haiku into his artwork about thirty years ago. His haiku and haiga have appeared in magazines, newspapers, galleries, books, and even corporate newsletters. His personal online gallery has been linked to numerous websites.

Zolo's haiga and haiku have received a number of awards and honors, including an online show published by Brooks Books; a Poet Profile documenting his work through the years in the online poetry magazine, Aha, as well as the 2001 cover of the yearly publication, American Haibun and Haiga, the cover of the premier issue of the haiku e-zine haijinx, and the cover of the premier issue of Reeds, the first hard copy magazine in North America dedicated entirely to contemporary haiga. His work has been featured in Haiga Online, the first online magazine dedicated to the oriental art form.

A former guest editor of Modern Haiku, he was the recipient of the Dragonfly Award from the Western World Haiku Society, and the Cicada Award from the Haiku Society of Canada.

He is co-founder and moderator of the online haiku group, Raku Teapot, which has recently released a groundbreaking project: the first ever anthology of a group of haiku poets from around the globe with accompanying compact disc of the participants reading their original verses in their own voices.

His haiga/art website is "Haiku Painting and Artwork."

His email address is: jpandsk@worldpath.net

A more detailed biography can be found on the AHA! POETRY website.