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Book of the Week: Because of a Seagull: A Book of Haiku by Gilles Fabre

An article in Haiku Spirit writes that Gilles Fabre was born in France but resides now in Ireland. He started writing haiku in the mid 1990s when he took a sabbatical break for a year to travel around the world. He published his first haiku in Australia during this trip and has been following the Haiku Way since then.

Gilles writes that “Haiku – this objective sketching of a special moment – is more than a literary or poetic genre: the Way of Haiku is a way of life. Following the Way of Haiku brings awareness and respect for the fragile and transient world we live in.”

First to blossom
this crooked tree
in my street!

Just when I thought
today would be forgotten ─
ladybird on my guitar

It had only one leg
the seagull
that woke me up

Morning wind
shaking
the tree’s last leaf

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library and please share your favorite poem from the book with us.

Do you have a chapbook published in 2016 or earlier that 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 Dan Campbell and are used with permission.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. I really enjoyed this one, Dan, how the eye moves from the sky over the mountain, down to the pines, and zooms in on one red-leafed tree—probably made redder by the setting sun. It could have been inspired by Kilbroney Forest in the Mountains of Mourne, just a couple of miles along the coast from me. Thanks to Gilles for sharing his collection.

    Beautiful.

    marion

    Mountain sunset ─
    among pines
    one red-leafed tree

  2. Thanks Dan
    Your selections provided a good in for the book.
    This one I found poignant for we have a young cherry in our garden that is still refusing to give up last seasons leaves, us now being on the cusp of spring.

    Morning wind
    shaking
    the tree’s last leaf

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