untitled haiku

So very brief and yet—the impact of the final line made me catch my breath. It’s a poem which draws a huge space around itself in which what is not said opens out. The intensity is incredible; the simplicity is beautiful. The ‘light rain’ implies sorrow in the most natural way; the ‘stone step’ the hardness of reality and death. The word ‘other’ packs an emotional shock like an electric current, only matched by the tenderness of the personal ‘your’. This is a lovely piece of writing.

Helena Nelson


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