Australia

  • Marietta McGregor


    three tiny bones
    in my inner ear
    meadow lark

    The Heron’s Nest, Vol XXI, Number 4, December 2019
    Shortlisted for The Haiku Foundation in January 2020 for a Touchstone 2019 Award.

  • Marilyn Humbert

    in the branches
    of a river red gum
    sits an empty nest...
    by my back door
    two forgotten black shoes


     
    in the silence
    between owl hoots
    a cry...
    welcome babygirl
    beloved grandchild

  • Marilyn Humbert

     
    slow-crawl
    among falling leaves
    a minesweeper
     
     
    in the stillness
    after her last breath
    silence of the moon


  • Marilyn Humbert

    floundering
    in the lonely sea
    discarded...
    you forgot, I am strong
    I can swim against the rip


     
    sitting rocking
    surveying her domain
    great aunty
    sometimes we visit...
    so does the wind and moon

  • Marilyn Humbert


    night birds
    call across the plains…
    I hear echoing
    the never-heard cries
    of my stillborn son

  • Marilyn Humbert


    fish hide
    in the river
    fallen branches

  • Mark Miller

    sunlight through cherry blossoms a girl glides in her wheelchair

     

    neap tide flipping onto its back a caught fish

     

  • McGregor, Marietta


    full moon rising and your pallor still painful


    boulders into thaw the worn-away ones/eons


    beach pebbles a plover suddenly


    another grey-weary day somewhere dogs growl

     

  • McGregor, Marietta

  • McGregor, Marietta

    in the hill
    the hill is
    the hill

     

    around an ant
    a halo
    of ants

     

    not-village
    where the earth
    builds tombs

     

  • McGregor, Marietta

    yellow eyes
    the moon looks out
    of a wolf

    — Merit Award, International Section, 29th Ito En Oi Ocha Shinhaiku Contest, 2018, Japan

  • McGregor, Marietta

    remembering her...
    a bowl of beets
    left to cool

     

    suitcase rummage
    I begin to think about
    death cleaning

     

    autumn alone
    the steel-grey whistle
    of a night train

     

    nautilus moon
    along the night beach
    cold sand

     

  • Merle Connolly

    lost miner
    his only company the light
    on his head...
    he talks to it, urges it
    to guide him safely out
     


    shop windows,
    fashion shoes in a row
    elegant
    enticing... how I love them
    on feet other than mine

  • Merle Connolly

    he sails his ship
    on a make-believe ocean,
    guides it safely
    through foaming seas
    my grandson, the bathtub sailor

  • Pillai, Madhuri

    siblings...
    the different narratives
    of our childhood

    Tinywords Issue 17.2 Nov.23. 2017

  • Pillai, Madhuri

    pruning roses...
    still holding his grin
    old garden gnome

  • Richard Kakol


    the rowan tree
    with its scarlet berries
    a gift from you . . .
    I mark the seasons
    since you were cut down

     

    all the fish
    at the aquarium
    sulking
    in isolation
    we need familiar faces

  • Rome, That Autumn

     

    bus tickets served
    with morning smoke
    and a sizzle of gossip

    glimpse of a day moon
    through the bell tower

    a cavalry of nuns
    storming the stop signs
    in Piazza Venezia

    high above the king’s legs
    astride a bronze charger

    the big reveal
    of that third espresso
    in a bar’s doorless WC

    an old crone sweeps away
    at one patch of floor

    feeling touched
    on the bus to St Peters
    wallet’s off with angels

    uplifting (g)lances
    of a Swiss Guard

    snow-cold aqua
    from a Roman fountain
    stabs my old teeth

    pizza with a knife and fork
    and waiters’ cheesy grins

    the bidet’s relief
    from top to bottom
    of a footsore tourist

     

  • Simon Hanson

    beyond the reach of light luminous fish
     
  • Simon Hanson


    golden amber
    an ancient bee
    bearing ancient pollen


    deep space
    stars in the skies
    of other worlds

     

    stirring
    its own image
    wind on the water