Haiku Creatrix - Issue 4 March 2009
Editor: Maureen Sexton
In this issue:
Natasha Adams
Rose van Son
Lorin Ford
Annie Otness
Gary de Piazzi
Jack Prewitt
John Bird
Andrew Taylor
Jenny de Garis
Nicholas Barwell
Sally Clarke
Max Merckenschlager
Maureen Sexton
wildflowers -
the expectant mother
steps carefully
Natasha Adams
long winter
mountain village
under cloud
against the ochre wall
shimmer of bees
summer light
between the sheds
a spiderweb
weaver of cloth
Rose van Son
the cat lets loose
her inner banshee
… All Saints Eve
frangipani…
the dog sighs
with me
drought
a trout fly rusts
with the sedges
sea fog
a gull's sharp
white cry
dark moon shadows flickering around the campfire
art bazaar: the sound of price tags flapping
bushfire moon
the calligraphy
of charred trees
previously published, Simply Haiku vol. 4 no.1,( USA ) Spring 2006
rusted hinge
the butterfly’s wings
close, open …
1st prize, 7th paper wasp Jack Stamm Award, 2006, published in the anthology ‘rusted hinge’
Lorin Ford
cool crisp morning light
wooden cut-out cows
balance on their shadows
Annie Otness
black gnarled tree
scorched by wild fire
pain and sorrow pass
Gary de Piazzi
summer storm
a cockatoo’s head
fills the knot hole
drifting mist ...
a boy and his dog
in the moored boat
misty rain
a butcher bird
sings softly
first light –
fruit bats homing
on the swamp
morning after
a paw print
on the other pillow
Jack Prewitt
al fresco coffee
a currawong checks
the tuckeroo
Anzac Day
the cenotaph littered
with blossom
old bush track…
the she-oaks
I’ve outlived
train home –
the moon bouncing
on power lines
Church of England –
a gum tree sprouting
in the roof gutter
graveyard in spring
the giggles of children
hiding and seeking
a tinge of red
on the poinsettia –
chimney smoke
John Bird
no bright teeshirts
sombre shirts hang now
near the crimson creeper
Spider haiku
no night shadows –
fragments of wings, legs, eyes
in the dusty web
spider eats
shadow of her meal
sunrise
shadows
across my vision
spider species on the move
Andrew Taylor
sleeping out I wake –
swimming in milky space
- the Seven Sisters
pecking spilled crumbs
across the sun-scorched rock
hops the fairy-wren
blocking the ladder
top to tail along the rung
above the water
four frogs in siesta shade –
we wade in over gravel
Jenny de Garis
still waters
the summer world
is dozing
tropical rain
upon a leaf
a mantis prays
hospital breakfast
on lifting the lid
a leather omelette
listening to mario lanza....enjoying my pizza
through winter's gloom
upon the line
a single sock
writing haiku
in the bath
I drop my pencil
Nicholas Barwell
city pond’s leisure
smooth reflective
tranquil green water
pale spring tree tops
another highway
lorikeets swoop cars
mother black swan
fluffy flotilla
haloed in sunlight
pale newness
quickens spring branches
birds jostle sleep
Sally Clarke
VISIT TO JABAL SABIR
YEMEN ARAB REPUBLIC
twisting track
jostled in four-wheel-drive
rattling climb
near the summit halt
forbidden to go on –
radar dish too close
chilly mountain air
valleys far below
green, quiet and still
coming down we hike
bullocks graze by road
women bundle qat
in terraced plots
pickers perch among trees
crop fresh young tips
Footnotes
Jabal Sabir ( Mount Sabir ) towers over the royal city of Taiz in Yemen Arab Republic . Qat (pronounced “gat” or “cat”) is a mildly-narcotic shrub similar in appearance to privet. The fresh tip leaves are chewed into a bulging ball in one cheek. Kalam is the Arabic name for pen (biro), popularised by American tourists.
Max Merckenschlager
ocean swell –
corrugated roof
of the beach shack
paper bark tree –
her sunburnt skin
flaking
mid-summer night -
naked at my computer
the screen flashes back
Maureen Sexton
