Lockdown Haiku by Clotilde Lopez

In August the Poetry Workshop at the Carmelite Centre practised haiku. Participants produced poems which were then discussed in the group online. Here are haiku by Clotilde Lopez, including two haiku titled ‘On Teaching by Remote’ 

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like glitter

invisible to the eye,

it sticks inside

pores,

we walk Blind folded

 

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under massive cloaking

pus pressed

Bursts

stray happenings erupt all around

Who bears this, who

does not

 

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I venture out

On my two legs

The world out there

 

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Not queen, or minx

escapes this corset

Breathe in, breathe out

 

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I heard the wind outside

disappear

The light of the paper lantern

chyron’s thick black fonts crosses the

tv screen

Starring statistics lining my thoughts

I switch it off.

 

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A grab of infected leaves, their shadows

flaying,

pressing their silhouettes

knock three times

at my window

 

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Masked bandits

a curious standoff

no one around

on these empty streets

 

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to finally sit

Unhurried

not poked, or prodded

a season’s respite it seems

while others lay

inside black body bags

Prematurely dead

 

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I am Becoming silent

my words do not approximate

the things I cannot grasp

 

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I do not want to talk

What is inside comes out

a different language

 

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Each one of us

A Deep, Deep well

I barely see you

 

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I trace my lips with my sensitive fingers,

my brows and nose

I open my eyes and see someone else in

the mirror

 

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Interiors

And then interiors

swell to surfacing, then back down again.

What’s in the basement?

 

‘On Teaching by Remote’

 

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I have landed.

On some remote planet,

an alien

I thought I knew myself.

 

‘On Teaching by Remote’

 

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morning Deadline

The work begins

I can barely pick up my pen

And when I do,

I do not stop

 

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Bombarding us with quips of

well-being and

mind-sets

I think of cement where no robust seed lies

even thinks of breaking through

Put away your banner and

Leave me alone

 

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trickles to dawn

the daylight fades

to night

trickles to dawn

 

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Chunks of solace

downed,

why am I still hungry?

 

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The hours nevertheless

pull me forward

like a carriage and unwilling horse

I play the notes on the piano

each sequence restoring my capacity to do

(2018?)

 

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Sapped, my thoughts roam

above

clouds float by

my hand outstretched

I grab an apple and Bite into that sweet

juices filling,

I write a haiku