PARALLEL POEMS

Poetry found by combining things – two tracks sometimes almost meeting, sometimes forking

  1. Home
  2. Haiku
  3. 2017
  4. February 2017
  • Home
  • Published
      • Back
      • Books
  • Haiku
      • Back
      • 2023
      • 2022
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
      • 2015
      • 2014
      • 2013
      • 2012
      • 2011
  • Haibun
  • Sequences
  • Backroom
Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

autumn cloud
a sun dial measures
the time we lost

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017
  • Sonic Boom 8

pine lesson
it is what
it is not

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017
  • Sonic Boom 8

I am now
in your third person
also present

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017
  • Cattails - April 2017
  • Number Eight Wire - The Fourth New Zealand Haiku Anthology

her ankles . . .
a path into mist's
endlessness

(Cattails Haiku Editor's Choice)

 Editor's Comments

Hansha Teki’s beautiful haiku catches the reader’s imagination and attention with the first line and holds it as a lingering image with the use of ellipsis.

her ankles . . .

Where could this be leading? The poet leads us onto a path and the haiku effortlessly moves forward into the mist and beyond. The skilful use of the last word ‘endlessly’, leaves the reader with endless opportunities to interpret the poem in myriad ways. An open haiku with ample space for the reader to step in. Is it the mist of spring or is it the mist of autumn? Again, it is left to us, the readers.

- Geethanjali Rajan


 

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

summer stream —
a mayfly breeding
shadows

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

fossil forest —
incoming waves obscure
a distant past

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

traces of dreams . . .
high winds shape cumuli
pregnant with change

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

morning fog —
brushstrokes from a dream
painting light

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

somewhere a tv
numbs the sound of nothing —
moonless night

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

desolate beach —
loneliness gnaws away
the edges

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

dawn vigil . . .
light, in silence,
becomes light

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

heat wave . . .
a pond shuffles off
its sheen

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

a vast sky —
shards of darkness
hold the whole

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

dawn chorus . . .
the theme echoes on
in the dew

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

far away —
the sound of water
filling gaps

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

dark is life
dark is death
das lied
von der erde

(after Gustav Mahler)

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

toon world . . .
Mickey and Donald
take the cake

(post US Trump/Pence inauguration)

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

all the words
ever uttered
tidal flats

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

breathing out
words of consecration
breathed out

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

trailing off
in a whisper of wish
summer clouds

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

still unborn
the weight of light
in his coffin

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

morning light
is my awakening
again stillborn

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

quiet now
flesh felt scent
aquiver

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

birth cry
the silence around
these words

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

star-gazing
within Salome's
seven veils

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

acid reign
morphing words into
the one ring

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

just this once
and no other

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

the slow swell
of ripeness into
feijoas

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

finale — 
the wind mumbles on
about bees

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

all about
tundra
defrosting

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

just an apple
scored
beneath a tree

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

no moon tonight
for my words to muse on
bare-faced death

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

shrove tuesday
my whakapapa stacked
against me

Details
Written by: Stephen Bailey
Category: February 2017

all day long
Lake Ratapiko laps
a summer lament

© Stephen Bailey 2011 - 2023
Back to top