Alan Summers
Are You Mother-of-pearl?
I have a large hole in a lower molar tooth,
it has a direct link to my soul;
my life is falling apart and I keep this private
except for you, except for you.
I remember a rose bush in a concrete garden tended by my mother,
that mother version is dead now, many versions ago,
and each version of my mother marks me like a ring in a bath
that won’t quite scrub away. The first ring was four years old,
I hear other people can remember earlier.
behind each eye
another Greek myth
difficult sun
About the Author
Alan Summers had two long-listed haibun in the Bournemouth Writing Festival Poetry & Flash Fiction 2024 Competition. One became shortlisted, then a winning haibun in the festival anthology Lines in the Sand: An Anthology of Poetry & Flash Fiction, Caught Between the Tides and Terra Firma.
Haunting and lovely. Simultaneously.
I like how the irregular stanza lineation and your haikai allusions echo the undercurrent of semi-recollected memory.
A velcro poem–I’ve been thinking about it all day. . . much enjoyed.
Wow thanks Billie, I was wondering if anyone would like this. It’s actually a pulled extract from a longer haibun, that can stand on its own, I hoped! 🙂
I have done a lot of irregular lines and free verse from my two Van Gogh haibun, to much earlier ones, where I was delighted that Bob Lucky commented upon those.
Journeys 2015: An Anthology of International Haibun
by Angelee Deodhar (editor)
https://area17.blogspot.com/2015/09/alan-summers-appears-in-new-haibun.html
Thanks again for your appreciation and I’ve not forgotten how amazing you were as guest haibun editor for one of my unusual styles of haibun! 🙂
warm regards,
Alan