Poet Profile

Matthew Paul

Matthew Paul works in the education department of two local authorities, Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames.  Matthew is Associate Editor for Presence [http://haiku-presence.50webs.com/], with a particular focus on writing and editing reviews; and is Expositions Editor for A Hundred Gourds [http://www.ahundredgourds.com/].  Matthew’s longer poems have appeared in various publications, including Fire, Poetry from Art (Tate Modern, Ed. Pascale Petit), Poetry Ireland Review, and at Nth Position [http://nthposition.com/poetry.php].

Awards and Other Honors: With Ferris Gilli, Ron Moss and Paul MacNeil, Matthew has twice been the recipient of the Grand Prize of the Haiku Society of America’s Bernard Lionel Einbond renku competition.

Books Published: The Regulars (Snapshot Press,2006); Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku (with John Barlow; Snapshot Press, 2008).

kissing her lipstick off spring wind

the bistro chef
smoking out the back
misty rain

river loop—
a sand martin squirms
into its nest hole

blighted chestnut
the uppermost starlings
trigger a leaf

slipping unnoticed
out of the house
last sunbeams

on a day the colour
of rolling tobacco
ragged-robin

Credits: “kissing her lipstick off” - Modern Haiku 40:3 (Autumn 2009): “river loop” - Presence 30 (2006); “slipping unnoticed” - Blithe Spirit 16:4 (December 2006); “the bistro chef” - Moonset 2:2 (Autumn 2006); “blighted chestnut” – Wing Beats (Snapshot Press, 2008); “on a day the colour” - Presence 37 (January 2009).