“Summer Haiku” by Maeve O’Sullivan

 

summer haiku

 
 

choppy Irish Sea
failing to dislodge
this red starfish
 
 
 
 
poppy bed:
the unopened ones
as lovely as the blooms

 
 
 
 
a garden full of sunflowers swaying tall
 
 
 muddy summer frogpond    no splash
 
 
 
 

 
 
reject samsara ?
this wild summer river
this wild path
 
 
 
 
these stone walls
hemming him in too-
cinnabar caterpillar
 
 
 
 
cloudy afternoon…
my sweet pea flowers
becoming peas
 
 

A Train Hurtles West

 
 
morning downpour-
we have both dreamt
about our mothers
 
 
 
 
lingering
in my small bathroom…
mum’s perfume
 
 
 
 
Auld Lang Syne
in the background-
I sign her DNR request
 
 
 
 
 
 
 mother dying       a train hurtles west
 
 
 
 
death cert. incomplete   granny’s maiden name
 
 
 
 

All through the Night:
this out of tune version
strangely moving

 
 
 
 

cloudy morning…
her solar-powered plastic flower
sways hesitantly

untitledMaeve O’Sullivan works as a media lecturer in the further education sector in Dublin. Her poems and haiku have been widely published and anthologised since the mid-1990s, and she is a former poetry winner at Listowel Writer’s Week. Initial Response, her debut collection of haiku poetry, also from Alba Publishing, was launched in 2011, and was well-received by readers and critics alike. Maeve is a founder member of Haiku Ireland and the Hibernian Poetry Workshop. She also performs at festivals and literary events with the spoken word group The Poetry Divas. Her poem Leaving Vigo was recently nominated for a Forward Prize for a Single Poem by the Limerick-based journal Revival.

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