Matthew Paul: Poetry & Stuff

Some summer haiku

Here are some of my summer haiku from over the years:

summer sales
a Caravaggio
chalked on the kerb

summer fete
the Punch and Judy man
losing his voices

behind the long pebble beach the filaments of wild fennel

all the shovelers up-ending August dusk

scissoring low
between lamb and ewe:
the heatwave swallows

house martins jink
between seafront hotels . . .
mint choc chip

1–2: from The Regulars, 2006.
3–4: from The Lammas Lands, 2015.
5: from Presence 52.
6: from The Haiku Calendar 2018.

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Matthew Paul

Responses

heathermoulson

July 29, 2020 at 10:43 am

Beautiful

Reply
1. Matthew Paul
  
  July 29, 2020 at 10:44 am
  
  Thanks, Heather.
  
  Reply
Julie Mellor poet

July 29, 2020 at 1:26 pm

What a brilliant selection. Thanks for sharing these Matthew. I love them all, particularly ‘summer fete’, how the poem relies so much on that one word, ‘voices’ which is strategically placed right at the end. It’s both surprising and poignant, and reminds me of summer holidays in Lllandudno, watching the Punch and Judy show on the sea front. I think it’s hard to write a haiku about a character and imbue it with the right emotional tone; this poem, however, is exemplary.
Julie X

Reply
1. Matthew Paul
  
  July 29, 2020 at 1:55 pm
  
  Many thanks, Julie. I’m very glad you like them.
  
  Re ‘summer fete’, although it’s almost 20 years since I wrote that, I remember that getting the ordering of the words right felt like arranging the wording of a punchline (pardon the pun) for maximum effect.
  
  These days, I largely prefer people’s slow-burning haiku which don’t have any obvious ‘punchline’ or ‘point’, but which, for me at least, have a deeper and longer resonance.
  
  Reply
alithurm

July 30, 2020 at 7:46 am

Very evocative, Matthew. I love ‘behind the long pebble beach…’ Perfect haiku for this hot summer weather. Thank you for sharing.

Reply
1. Matthew Paul
  
  July 30, 2020 at 7:47 am
  
  Thanks, Ali.
  
  Reply
Poetry Blog Digest 2020, Week 31 – Via Negativa

August 3, 2020 at 3:27 am

[…] Matthew Paul, Some summer haiku […]

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SaaniaSparkle 🧚🏻‍♀️

August 26, 2020 at 7:28 am

Awesome!

Reply
1. Matthew Paul
  
  August 26, 2020 at 7:30 am
  
  Thanks!
  
  Reply