M. Shayne Bell
Notes on Potentiality in Iris sibirica
She lifts from nothing to become
this purple iris leaning to the Sun,
this flower I sit with at noon.
At dusk, I wait with her again.
All her sisters eavesdrop toward us.
Her perfume envelopes me.
She never sleeps, her life so short—
in deep night, she stands awake
for rivered stars and for the Moon.
Her days dawn with sparkling dews.
Bio
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 his haiku were listed among the best English-language haiku of both 2015 and 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, among others.
Bell's poetry has also been published in Amazing Stories, Asimov's, Cathexis Northwest Press,
Dialogue, The Fibonacci Review, The Ghazal Page, High Shelf, Kind Writers Literary Journal
(where his poem, "The Kitten, One Year On," was selected for Notable Recognition,
2019-2020 Kind Writers Contest), Once Upon a Midnight (an anthology commemorating the
150th anniversary of the publication of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"), Shot Glass Journal,
and Typishly, among others.
Bell grew up on a ranch outside of Rexburg, Idaho. He and his six cats live in Rexburg.