Book of the Week: And A White Butterfly

Norman Barraclough was one of the few, perhaps the only haiku poet ever to die on a haiku nature walk, when a massive heart attack took his life. Fortunately for us, he lives on in the two books of haiku he published during his all too brief acquaintance with the genre. His haiku are notable for the poet’s gentle connection to the natural world, and his extraordinary powers of imaginative observation. Our Book of the Week is his second volume, published in 1999, And A White Butterfly.

a cloud
of wild flowers quivering
as one

 

on the moor
wind-chased ripples run
into still water

 

rustle of blown leaves
scattering –
crinkle of map
being unfolded

 

 

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.

Do you have a chapbook published 2010 or earlier you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details.

Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by THF Digital Librarian Garry Eaton, and are used with permission