By Bev Morris
Covid-19 Haiku Series
Part I: Locked-down in March
through my mean window
reminders of a bright world
we tarmacked over
Part II: Arrivals in April
the murder is in
session: black-hooded judges
call us to order
Part III: Blue in May
discarded blue glove,
your Personal Protective
Equipment.
Part IV: Journeys in June
bedroom, bathroom, hall
kitchen, living room, attic:
corona travels
Part V: Butterfly spotting in July
a battle-weary
Meadow Brown, torn and trembling.
Larva left in hope.
Part VI: Found in the future
it was not lost just
unfound in the slack space of
not remembering
Bev Morris: These were written as part of the FaceBook Haiku Group which offers solace and humour in this strange online world. On the days when my creativity was dulled by the rising death toll and my concentration was in tatters because of the digital onslaught of false information, I was able to calm my senses by writing a haiku. It felt manageable, achievable: a release. Each one reflects my observations in that month of the pandemic. There are still more to write…
Lockdown Love
I’ve got my life on inside out.
I’m visiting friends from my kitchen table.
I can’t hug them,
I can’t dance with them,
I can’t dry their tears.
I’m applauding masked heroes who never land a punch:
I’m staying home to win the war.
I’m listening to politicians because their words actually matter now.
I love you but
I can’t hold you in my arms,
I can’t smell your skin,
I can’t melt into you.
I’m saving the planet without going on any marches,
I’ve got all the time I need to write by book and yet…
I wear comfy clothes all day long but something still irritates me:
I’ve got grit in my slipper and I haven’t left the house.
Lockdown Love was written out of frustration that I couldn’t hug the people I love most and that there are some friends I will probably never be able to hug again.
Initially a short story writer, Bev Morris has been a finalist in script and novel competitions and her inaugural poetry collection is in Rugged Rocks, Running Rascals.
Twitter – @MarvellousMinds
Instagram – marvellousmindsltd
Wonderful observations beautiful written. Loved the haiku poems as distilled what we’re going through.
Loved the idea of being irritated in comfy clothes, which sums up so much of my covid experiences.
By charting experience in the haiku format, we get a real sense of the disconnect of time, the shrinking world and the new normal of life saving litter – a bleak reminder that we will never learn.
These encapsulate the anger and frustration that so many of us have felt during the pandemic. Reading these poems brought back lockdown days when mentally we seemed to be bouncing off the walls. Like the battered Meadow Brown in ‘Butterfly Spotting in July,’ we’ve lost our lustre and optimism. Our primary feeling is often grief.