gated
complex
in the grip
of wisteria
Author: Helen Buckingham
Helen Buckingham lives in Wells, UK. Her work appears regularly in journals and anthologies including: Frogpond, The Heron's Nest, Modern Haiku, Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton, 2013) and nada annunaad: an anthology of contemporary world haiku (Vishwakarma Publications, 2016). She won first prize in the Martin Lucas Award, 2016. Her most recent collection is the Touchstone Award shortlisted sanguinella (Red Moon Press, 2017).
feral tide the trash we feed it
Advent Calendar
the final window
a refugee mother
(Originally published in NOON, 2023)
daily jog
an abundance
of may
(Originally published in Frogpond 44.3, 2021)
high table
a parliament of crows
breaking bread
(originally published in Blithe Spirit 32.1, 2022)
dawn chill
the potter returns
to her kiln
(Honorable Mention, Morioka Award, 2021)
office mistletoe
in the teeth of
his comb over
Easter morning
fox cubs scuffle
over a thrush egg
(The Mainichi, April 11, 2020)
emptying
the bird bath
sumo sparrows
seafront clairvoyant
her cypress leaf charm
brushes my palm
(Originally appeared in Presence 58, 2017)
shaken
from my sleeping bag…
seeds of another summer
(Originally appeared in Chrysanthemum 15, April 2014)
anniversary
of Apollo 11–
losing the remote
(Jack Stamm Award, Finalist, 2004)
once a school…
tulips line
the hospice drive
(Previously appeared in The Betty Drevniok Award, Honorable Mention, 2018)
New Year’s dawn…
cranberries
for the mistle thrush
snow
its own
cathedral
autumn equinox
the truck driver clicks his tongue
at a passing dray
(1st Prize, The Martin Lucas Award, 2016)
hunter’s moon darting through the forest pines
snow on mars tonight earth’s flaming arrow
(for David Bowie, 1/8/47-1/10/16)
(originally appeared in Roadrunner 8.4)
barbed wire
spirals
along the church wall
still life class
she pours her heart
into the skeleton
evening sun
helping my dad
tend the cosmos
early bus—
catching my reflection
in the police van window
autumn leaves
lipstick red
her brand new path to herself
graffiti
sharper
by moonlight
new moon
last year’s kite
slumped in the corner
amber light
wrapped flowers
on the verge
low-flying cloud…
the retired airman clips
his topiary swan
moonlight
on the rocky side
of an oyster shell
saree shop
in a boarded-up lane…
tulips after rain
Indian bedspread Caribbean rum
midnightcoloursrun
All Souls’…
a wasp returns
to the lintel
late-night radio…
dust rising
from the convector heater
still life:
the pear’s
pitted skin
sunlight
on the draining board
…a cabbage butterfly
lunch in the courtyard —
cherry blossom obscuring
the hands of the clock
steam-filled market
mistletoe tethered
to a meat-hook
