new moon
last year’s kite
slumped in the corner
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).
graffiti
sharper
by moonlight
autumn leaves
lipstick red
her brand new path to herself
early bus—
catching my reflection
in the police van window
previously published in 3Lights, September 2009
evening sun
helping my dad
tend the cosmos
(For my dear Dad, Frederick Buckingham, 1914-2012)
still life class
she pours her heart
into the skeleton
barbed wire
spirals
along the church wall
snow on mars tonight earth’s flaming arrow
(for David Bowie, 1/8/47-1/10/16)
(originally appeared in Roadrunner 8.4)
hunter’s moon darting through the forest pines
autumn equinox
the truck driver clicks his tongue
at a passing dray
(1st Prize, The Martin Lucas Award, 2016)
snow
its own
cathedral
New Year’s dawn…
cranberries
for the mistle thrush
once a school…
tulips line
the hospice drive
(Previously appeared in The Betty Drevniok Award, Honorable Mention, 2018)
anniversary
of Apollo 11–
losing the remote
(Jack Stamm Award, Finalist, 2004)
shaken
from my sleeping bag…
seeds of another summer
(Originally appeared in Chrysanthemum 15, April 2014)
seafront clairvoyant
her cypress leaf charm
brushes my palm
(Originally appeared in Presence 58, 2017)
emptying
the bird bath
sumo sparrows
Easter morning
fox cubs scuffle
over a thrush egg
(The Mainichi, April 11, 2020)
office mistletoe
in the teeth of
his comb over
dawn chill
the potter returns
to her kiln
(Honorable Mention, Morioka Award, 2021)
high table
a parliament of crows
breaking bread
(originally published in Blithe Spirit 32.1, 2022)
daily jog
an abundance
of may
(Originally published in Frogpond 44.3, 2021)
Advent Calendar
the final window
a refugee mother
(Originally published in NOON, 2023)
feral tide the trash we feed it