the man in the park
smells of freshly cut flowers
and dirt-crusted hands
I was inspired to write this fragment after seeing a man walking through my local park, carrying a bunch of flowers that I’m fairly certain he’d pilfered from a flower bed. I wrote it on 14 July 2014 as part of my year of writing 1 haiku a day. I'd forgotten about it until October 2023 when The Daily Haiku called for submissions to the LEAF journal issue 2 and I revisited my 365 haiku in search of something I could submit. I sent them 5 haiku and was delighted when they chose this one. It’s nestled alongside some very fine haiku indeed and I hope you’ll take a moment to explore them all.
Image is from the cover of LEAF Issue Two, published December 2023.