At Apogee.
By: M. Shayne Bell
Sparrows drop,
tumble down the air
as if some strength
leaned on in flight
fails them:
they dive, roll—
catch themselves
before the ground.
In swirls of leaves,
they rise up.
M. SHAYNE BELL received a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1991).
Bell’s haiku have been published in Blithe Spirit: Journal of the British Haiku Society, Frogpond: Journal of the Haiku Society of America, Haikuniverse, The Heron’s Nest, Mainichi Japan (where haiku of his were selected as among the best English-language haiku: 2015, 2017), Modern Haiku, Open Journal of Arts and Letters (O:JA&L), Shot Glass Journal, star 82 review, Sunstone, Tinywords, and The Wales Haiku Journal.
Bell’s poetry has also been published in Amazing Stories, Asimov’s, Cathexis Northwest Press, Dialogue, The Fibonacci Review, The Ghazal Page, High Shelf, Inscape, Kind Writers Literary Journal (where he received Notable Recognition, 2019-2020 Kind Writers Contest, for his poem: “The Kitten, One Year On”), Once Upon a Midnight (an anthology commemorating the 150th anniversary of the publication of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”), Star*line, The Pillar, and Typishly, among others.
In 1993, Bell backpacked through Haleakala Volcano on Maui, from the summit to the sea, retracing an expedition Jack London went on in 1911. In 1996, Bell joined an eight-day expedition to the summit of Kilimanjaro. Bell grew up on a ranch outside of Rexburg, Idaho; he and his four cats live in Rexburg.