Simply Haiku - July 2003, Volume 1, Number 2

Volume 1, Number 2, August 2003

Caroline Gourlay

Caroline lives with her husband on the Welsh Border and has written poetry for much of her life. She became involved with the haiku movement in 1994, joining the BHS that year and the HSA somewhat later. She edited Blithe Spirit from 1998-2000 and is a Patron of the Ledbury Poetry Festival in England. Haiku publications include Crossing The Field (Redlake Press), Through The Cafe Door (Snapshot Press), Reading All Night (Hub Press). Her haiku and tanka have also appeared in sundry journals and anthologies. She had 5 tankas among the winners of the1997 Tanka Splendor Award and won the James Hackett Award in 1996.

waiting alone
in the hotel lounge -
touching again
this time with your right hand
your hat, your red earring

listening for it
in a city cafe -
the evening breeze
and the echo of your boots
crossing the farmyard ...

a child, you sit
while the grown-ups talk,
the bare flesh of
your thigh bothered by the
unfamiliar weight of your knee

here
at the centre of our bliss
a blind twisting -
slow like a bee long dying
a sweet honeysuckle death

picking it up - a
conker for your collection
dark and smooth as
the skin of your cheek
that I long to touch