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Book of the Week: Lull before dark

gourlaylull

Caroline Gourlay is one of the UK’s strongest haiku voices. This attractive book, from Brooks Books in 2005, shows her in her most lyrical and distinctive mode.

Snapshot Press declines to make this book available to The Haiku Foundation Digital Library at this time.

All haiku in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by Tom Clausen, and are used with permission.


all those things I wish now I'd asked you- snow falling
photo chance... again I capture only your smile
out-stared by the child I drop my eyes to my book and pretend to read...
early morning mist gathering in the lane cow parsley
not wanting to talk... my shadow detaches  from the group
hidden blue tit his song advancing  branch by branch
chief executive loosening his tie sniffs a dog-rose
dawn departure... leaving the flowers behind on the table
storm buffets the house my hand starts to massage the cat's shoulder
evening firelight drawing the dark corners  into the room
turning for home in the lull before dark blackberries
following it  out of the village- spring sunshine
my mother- after her death her silence
touching it- early spring sunshine on this wet stone
zazen-sitting watching through closed eyes the rising sun
log fire- turning in the flames my watched thoughts
sinking sun taking the mountain with it
crossing the woodland floor a fly

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Yes, beautiful haiku and book by Caroline Gourlay. It is interesting to reread poems after some years have gone by. I especially appreciate her haiku about loss and grief for her mother. My mother also found so much consolation in literature. Now it is over nine years since my mother’s passing, and I hear her voice (once again), when I read the authors of her generation and see her handwriting in a book or note.

    I want to highlight that Brooks Books is in Illinois, since I lived there for many years. THF, especially Montage and the Video Archive, also helped me better understand the Midwestern haiku history.

    Thank you, Ellen

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