South Wales Haiku




The rainy season
Thin moon
Still drunk from last time




On the moors
The snow caught by grass
No one to see it




In the chapel
Old wood
After so many years still shining




Through the dense firs
Light of a wrecked car
Burning




Blowing graffiti
From the viaduct buttress
An autumn gale




Soccer fans gathering
Their talk has the richness
of cabbage soup




In the old pond
Oil slick and hard moon
Both breathing




Old love on the hillside
His penis stuffed
With chrysanthemum




The slug on fire
Beneath a stack
Of beer mats




White leeks and
A man mending his sidecar
In the harvest moon




Snow on the early
Daffodils
Some bastard starts complaining




Month after month
On the councillor's face
A councillor's mask




The moon fleeting fast
Sound of bottles breaking
In a distant outhouse




Sound of an old man
Cracking snails
Clear to the big dipper




Above the runner beans
The moon thins to a chink
My neighbour unscrews the electric meter




Ice sky above B&Q
New fence post burn
In the breath of customers




Billberry full of steam
Taking a winter
Crap




Streetlamps like fireflies
Eight grown men
Stare at a wall




Cherry blossom on the coal shed
Kid inside
Killing a cat




Reporter describes the rain
His pen leaks blue
In his inside pocket




Tired of change
We go back
God's the same




At dawn
Sound of pigeon wing
And Kawasaki starting




Outside the boarded church
Rolled carpet and piled chairs
The stack almost reaches heaven



His shaky arm
Lifts to the sky
Beer rusts the zip of his trousers




Moon watching in his summer vest
My neighbour farts
Bengali curry




After long rain
Coal scars like
Patches of past fire




Flies circle
Someone steals a
Frozen chicken




Shadow of the pithead
A cricket, two greyhounds
And a thin man smoking




Peter Finch










Some of these haiku have been illustrated by the artist William Brown.



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