beyond the black stump a shiver of ghost gums

Published by

Lorin Ford

Growing up first in the Seaford Beach/Kananook Creek area and then in Cann River, Croajingolong country, East Gippsland, formed Lorin?s sense of belonging to the natural world. Lorin began writing haiku in 2004. She served on the judging panel for the Haiku Dreaming Awards (2009), on the The Haiku Foundation's Touchstone Books Awards Panel (2010, 2011 and 2012) and was co-judge with Lee Gurga for the H.S.A.?s 2018 Henderson Haiku Awards. Lorin was haiku editor for the first nine (quarterly) issues of Notes From the Gean (2009 ? 2011) and subsequently publisher of A Hundred Gourds (2011 ? 2016) where she served as haiku editor, features editor, managing editor and in other editorial roles. In 2014 she founded the 'Red Kelpie Haiku Group' (Melbourne, Australia), convening four meetings each year until the group broke up subsequent to its twentieth meeting in June 2019. Over the years, Lorin's haiku have received awards and been included in excellent anthologies. Books Published: 'a wattle seedpod' (Post Pressed, Teneriffe, Qld, Australia, 2008); e-chapbooks: 'what light there is' (3Lights Gallery, 2009) and 'A Few Quick Brushstrokes', a winner of the Snapshot Press e-chapbook competition, 2011. All three publications are available online, free of charge.

12 thoughts on “”

  6. What a magnificent image Lorin! "Shiver" perfectly matches the shape of these beautiful trees, while evoking so much mystery. And you also capture how Australian gumtree forests cycle through death and rebirth via bushfires, in that stark opening reference to the black stump. Really wonderful haiku.

    Recently I was inspired by my own encounter with these trees while driving:

    gravel road
    ghost gums mock
    at my every turn

    Strider

    Reply

  7. Beautiful, Lorin. And a subtle use of metaphor that illuminates, so brightly, these few words. You've packed life and death, loss and hope, past and present in there. Great haiku to show apprentices to illustrate what can be achieved.

    Reply

Respond here