Poetic Musings: Folding Sheets Haiku by Earl Keener

folding sheets

the weight of a flag

still in my arms

First Prize, 2011 Betty Drevniok Award

Earl Keener

Judge's Commentary: In the first place poem the weight of the folded sheet is a physical reminder of a loved one’s death. Eleven words hold the weight of sorrow, the weight of love. The sheets hold memory too, perhaps that of lovemaking which may have produced a child, or the intimacies of a beloved partner. Folding, such a neat word is almost military. Something might be made small and therefore manageable.

I am impressed by the poem’s brevity, the word, still, a sadness which may never end. Time is stilled for a moment, just as time stilled the loved one.

Note: The following two haiku could be read as prequels to Earl's:

another

flag-draped coffin

Independence Day

Chrysanthemum, 19, April 2016

Chen-ou Liu

the flag folded

something of myself is lowered 

with his coffin 

A Glimpse of Red, 2000

Jerry Kilbride