1.
hearth fire heat
labour of bitter coffee
fulfills its promise
2.
teary june gusts
make dunes ascending glory
unwanted shelter
3.
warm bare flesh
galway’s water is coursing
another neat sigh
4.
strand skeletons
gleaming white gannets dive
into a slate sea
5.
atop mweelrea
in the snow clew bay appears
reward of clouds
6.
an office of men
unsmiling grey solutions
undo silence
7.
seventy per cent
of heaven; this target is
unrealistic
8.
drifting into day
embers of dream remaining
ushered out of sleep
9.
avocado and salt
a distant donkey’s braying
warns of better times
10.
the moon is not out
darkness undresses herself
where the foxes run
11.
imagine all this
a dragon no longer real
remembering pasta
12.
two men by a tree
one clips a branch, the other
points towards the sky
13.
timber smell of hope
vesta kisses your forehead
and her lips say ‘go’
14.
new cherry blossoms
open in herds lingering
stains of memory
15.
“I am forever!”
cries the summer leaf, beneath
its crown of starlings
16.
your breath signs the air
enters a world of promise
and forgets its vow
17.
haiku doesn’t rhyme
it doesn’t step out of time
it doesn’t step out
18.
the sky drops its eyes
winter’s cold mounts the dark
goading us to warmth
Selected Haiku © 2017 Fergus Deffely
