Matthew Paul: Poetry & Stuff

So here we are again, in what is marginally my favourite season. I thought I’d post some of my autumn haiku to mark it.

climbing the walls
of a disused youth club:                   
flowering hops

*

avocet bills
scour the lagoon bed—
hurricane’s end

*

autumn wind
a delivery of flour
to the bakery

*

tucking a roll-up
behind his ear
the harvest sun

*

shifting currents . . .
a coot scrambles
to keep mid-river

*

along the pine-lined lane lopes the lengthening Hallowe’en sun

*

leafless park
a sausage dog defends
the penalty area

*

the soft song
of the poplar-tops—                                   
swans in flight

*

still dark down the street I whistle a tune from a western

1, 6, 8: from Presence
2, 5: from Wing Beats, 2008
3: from The Lammas Lands, 2015
4, 7: from The Regulars, 2006
9: Previously unpublished