Rockford     Haiku

Six years ago photographer Ryan Davis and poet Thomas L. Vaultonburg began a weekly urban hike always beginning in the exact same place in the virtual geographical center of Rockford and radiating out in a different direction each time.

This page is about what happens when a poet and a photographer take the same steps on the same streets in the same town so many times that all of the places and things that seemed so familiar in the beginning became new and mysterious... and magical. 

From iconic Rockford landmarks like the Faust, Midway, and Times Theatre, to long-forgotten ghost murals and infinite susprises discovered in places rarely accessed except on foot, Davis and Vaultonburg documented in photographs and haiku a version of Rockford few ever experience. We cordially invite you to come see these images and words from their upcoming book Hike You!

Hike You!: Six Years of Photographs and Haiku From the Heart of Rockford

Beattie Park

your souls raise the soil

of May Day like the breast of

Mother Earth herself                                                                  

        Magnet Fishing At the Fordham Dam

With Ryan Davis

dragging rock bottom

we reel in rusty remnants

of the Screw City

  Midway

lost somewhere between

now and then, a harsh reminder

the show always ends   

Rockford haiku poet Thomas L. Vaultonburg has been published in over 250 literary journals since he first appeared in Exquisite Corpse in 1990.  In 2020 he began writing exclusively haiku, and once again began publishing in 2025. Since then his haiku have appeared or will be appearing in many prestigious haiku journals internationally, including Wales Haiku Journal, Presence(England), Haiku Canada Review, Mainishi(Japan), Modern Haiku, Haiku Commentary, heliosparrow, Heron's Nest, 5/7/5 Haiku Journal, Autumn Moon Haiku, Failed Haiku, Pan Haiku Journal... For 25 years he operated Zombie Logic Press in Rockford, Illinois, publishing the first books of many Rockford authors and introducing Rockford writers to an international audience. He currently is one half of Wolf Twin Books with his partner Tré. Their book Moonscape: Haiku Phase I and Vaultonburg's haiku collection Small Songs For Weary Travelers are available at Wolf Twin Books. 

The historic Faust Landmark Hotel and Midway Theater in Downtown Rockford shrouded by luminous December fog. This and other photo and haiku collaborations created over the six years of their Rockford Haiku hikes will be published in a book titled Hike You!: Six Years of Photographs and Haiku from the Heart of Rockford,  and individual pieces will be exhibited at Spring Art Scene in 2026.