HAIKU
Nathalie Buckland

winter paddock
the horse's breath
warms my hands

clearing sky
a watermelon rind
on the tide line

afternoon sun -
the whiteness
of a gliding egret

       [famous reporter # 39 : Jun 2009]


a mug of coffee...
new screws in
my old table

a cat bird cries
I stroke the trunk
of a brushbox

flowering gum
the flash of mirrors
from her skirt

monday morning
sequinned sandals under
my pandanus

       [famous reporter # 37 : Jun 2008]


winter grass
the wheeling kestrel's
russet back

midday hush
sound of the cow
breathing

bush track
my puppy runs towards
a lyre bird's whistle

roosting doves
the goanna's claws sunk
into the bark

       [famous reporter # 35 : Jun 2007]


A week in Tasmania : haiku sequence

take off...
the plane's underbelly
lit by sunrise

arrivals gate--
today's face masks
the child I knew

bitter morning
bridge piers skewer
the pewter Derwent

90th birthday
she still sparkles
over champagne

Port Arthur--
a parrot perches
between bars
placid inlet
smoke rises from
the Isle of the Dead

sun-warmed sandstone
the roughness
of weathered chisel marks

memorial garden
a rabbit
pauses on the path

quiet road
the kilometres marked
by dead Devils

leaving
the corrugated coastline
tilts

       [famous reporter # 34 : Dec 2006]


parched grass
the bird pulls a worm
from its shadow

winter lullaby
the baby grasps
at her breath

       [famous reporter # 33 : Aug 2006]


blossom -
I walk through the sound
of bees

hard-baked earth
a broken hippeastrum
oozes sap

cliff-top walk
heavy rain joins
sky to ocean

sleepless night
I tap out syllables
on my pillow

       [famous reporter # 31 : Nov 2005]

NATHALIE BUCKLAND, who lives in Nimbin, has written poetry since childhood. Having discovered haiku a few years ago, she is now a member of the local haiku groups 'cloudcatchers' and 'Wollumbin Haiku Workshop'. Her work has been published both in Australia and overseas. She also sings with a women's band.