Author: Helen Buckingham

gated
complex
in the grip
of wisteria

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

(For my dear Dad, Frederick Buckingham, 1914-2012)