O:JA&L Mixed Forms: Haibun
Shelley Tracey
Incline
depending on
the wind, we lean
towards the light
These irises outside the door emerge too early in the spring on fawn-fine limbs, deer-dappled in the shadows, licking at belated frosts with fissured tongues. Tilting into future storms, they will not last till summer comes. Brittle green-rimmed tulips, placed inside the vase with stems entwined, will stretch away from one another in drooping papery drapes. Hyacinths, top-heavy, keep their heads aloft until their fragrance fells them.
Dandelions let go graciously, in gentle breaths. Leaves released in autumn know in their phloem how not to fall too fast, find sideways trails along the breeze. The beeches in the park lean forward, spines flexible, rhythming each other. Oaks know when to angulate, promoting growth. The pine props up the pendant moon.
About the writer:
Shelley Tracey’s collection Elements of Distance was published by Lapwing (2017). Other poems have been published in The North, Orbis, Abridged, Skylight 47, The Haibun Journal, Stag Hill Journal, Drifting Sands Haibun, North West Words, Honest Ulsterman, Bangor Literary Journal, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and Bray Arts Journal. Poems have also appeared in Bloody Amazing, Lighting Out, Recovery, Washing Windows V, and North Star anthologies. Poems have been shortlisted in Poems for Patience, Second Light, Over the Edge and Bangor Poetry competitions. Commissions include poems for ‘The Way It Is’, Community Arts Partnership, and reminiscence poems for c21 Theatre Company.
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprints Buttonhook Press, HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, and HIGH BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Art, supports writers and artists worldwide.
Explore O:JA&L’s Buttonhook Press offerings on Amazon.
Subscribe to the O:JA&L YouTube channel.
Become an O:JA&L Member through Patreon.
Follow O:JA&L on Facebook.
Support Pamelyn Casto’s text for writers: Flash Fiction: Alive in the Flicker
Support O:JA&L’s free presses.
