Florence Vilen         Vol. 2, No. 2 - Summer 2001

CURRENT ISSUE Haiku Harvest Vol. 2, No. 2 - 2001     These poems are Copyright © 2001 by Florence Vilen. E-Mail: florence.vilen@spray.se		Suddenly this morning                   An online chapbook by Florence Vilen     Beginning and end of a voyage round the world: behind your eyes     Withered stalks, old moss the colour of new grass           Uphill the snowdrops, downhill only snow white       - your microclimate     Suddenly                                             See the haiga!       this morning             bright yellow crocus!     Looking for each bud between the white-striped leaves of early crocus     Closed in on themselves in the shadows of morning the early crocus     Four inches high this crocus variety is Giant or Mammoth     By bus to my work recognizing most patches of early Spring flowers     The different colours of swelling buds on branches in early Spring     A reddish tip on the unfolding leaf of white-bark birch     First flush of colour on the slender birches, dandelion brassy     Before any leaves the greenish sprays of the maple, the bright forsythia     Touch of the sun; everywhere dandelions, some Easter lilies     Unrolling the white carpet of Spring: wood anemones     In the Spring sun trying his skills our elderly cat     Not yet - the roses. Not yet - the tulips. The litter - always     Long Nordic twilight: emptied of its colours the sky, darkening trees     After you, my bee - queueing to smell the honey-sweet rose     Whichever way the old fence is extended by stinging nettles     Arresting his public a heated sermon from Jack-in-the-pulpit        (Arum maculatum)     Slugs have settled                   on a lonely peony,                   low in the grasses     Another shower,       not many petals left             on the old rose-bush     Shining white lily indoors dotted in brown of its own pollen     Woods on rolling hills, fields chequered green and yellow: hobbit country     About the Poet -- Florence Vilen lives in Sweden and works in adult education, teaching and writing. She has been interested in Japanese haiku since she first came across Henderson's Introduction and, later, Blyth's four volumes on haiku, but her interest in modern Western haiku is more recent. She reads several languages and is interested in the differences in the national styles of haiku. Her first haiku to be printed was under a pen name in the British journal still and she is eager to continue. Copyright © 2001 by Denis M. Garrison.