amber light
wrapped flowers
on the verge

Published by

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).

11 thoughts on “”

  1. This reminds me also of the one in Whiteladies Road which has had wrapped flowers for perhaps two years now?

    Nice to see you on Tinywords again! ;-)

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  2. Helen… one can immagine these “wrapped flowers” as -buds- waiting to unwrap into a new day’s light.
    Well done!
    _m

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  3. It took my American ear a couple of beats to hear “verge” properly, but it was more than worth the effort.

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  4. “Verge” seems the key word here. I feel a lot of eager anticipation in this; a lovely moment, lovelier still for its promise of more beauty yet to come. Wonderful. Thank you for this, Helen.

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  7. This seems very rich. One reason is that another reading hovers in the back ground for me: “Amber light wrapped flowers on the verge.” That paints a simultaneous, enriching scene.

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  9. Many thanks, everyone, for your responses. Great to see several of you taking away something positive from what, to my mind, is essentially a dark poem. Haiku is traditionally deemed to be a collaboration between author and reader – and as such all perspectives are invaluable.

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  10. Helen, I found this lovely, yet slightly puzzling. I came back to see if I’d caught your intent.
    I hadn’t — I was seeing “on the verge” of opening, etc. So I checked the British use of “verge” in my dictionary, and now I understand the comments by Alan and Bob.
    A roadside memorial…aha!
    And a sigh…
    Lary

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