Poet Profile

Norman Barraclough

A tribute to Norman Barraclough by Colin Blundell, The President of British Haiku Association: I well remember Norman – a very gentle soul, a book of whose haiku I published in 1999 (And a White Butterfly), a year after he died.

Fred Schofield wrote: ‘...He died during the BHS conference at Ludlow, on a walk, on Saturday 18th April 1998. It was a beautiful morning with flowers in the hedgerow and skylarks singing. He collapsed suddenly and all attempts to resuscitate him failed. We learned later that he’d had a massive heart attack...’.
I’d no idea it was so long ago – it seemed like yesterday I was sitting by his side at an AGM. He was responsible for totting up votes for BHS officers as well as being an ace haiku-writer with only four years of experience.

Books Published:

digitized in The Haiku Foundation Library Collection:
The Whiteness of Wild Plum, Bare Bones Press, 1998;
And a White Butterfly, Hub Haiku Series Editions, 1999, UK.

at both ends
of the deserted footbridge―
fallen leaves

the curve
of the cricket’s leap: scent
of wild marjoram

inside
out of the fog
of steamed-up spectacles

blue water-lilies
a crowd of windflowers 
quivering as one

this shortest night
the actor's speech drones on―
a noisy aircraft

boots off
at the walk’s end―soaring wings
of a red kite 

Credits:

All poems from And a White Butterfly, Hub Haiku Series Edns, 1999, UK.