Book of the Week: Deer Heart by Stephen Toft
From Haikupedia – Stephen Toft (born April 14, 1980, Basingstoke, U.K.), homelessness worker and poet. His work has been included in international journals and anthologies and be sure to check out his website.
The photographs in the book are by Phil Openshaw who is a photographer and visual artist from England who works with a wide variety of media.
in the hollow
of a tree i find
a cathedral
summer stars
an eel slides
towards my nightmare
cherry blossoms convincing nobody
first snow
what
is holy?
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 2018 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.

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w zagłębieniu
drzewa znajduję
katedrę
Piękne kocham drzewa i katedry też…
Love Stephen Toft’s poems! Can’t remember what journal published it, but his haiku about not waking a deer in a dream is one of my favorites. He has a new mini digital book on the Half Day Moon Press website that is worth reading as well. Also, some other great mini books there including a brand new one by Cherie Hunter Day.
Stephen says:
a deer in my dream
my wife says
don’t wake it
from Heliosparrow
https://heliosparrow.com/2021/12/21-4/
Thanks Alan! That’s the one. Although, if you look under Stephen’s name in the authors on Heliosparrow’s site that doesn’t come up.
Thanks so much for your kind words, Rich – much appreciated 🙂
Hi Rich,
It’s the 5th poem down under Stephen’s name:
https://heliosparrow.com/category/authors/stephen-toft/
There’s no subject/keyword search which would be fascinating, but the name search seems to be comprehensive.
warm regards,
Alan
Thanks so much for the kind words, Rich – much appreciated 🙂