The road twists and turns for miles ahead. The refugee caravan moves haltingly forward. Mothers carrying their babies; dazed children, old people, the young, all stagger towards a safer future. Crossing the Red Sea, walking through deserts, wading across the Suchiate River, the caravan camps at Calais, rests for a night on Lesvos, repopulates the Sicilian city of Sutera, rows across river Evros. Razor wire carves memories on children’s skin. A voice over the megaphone: “Achtung, Achtung!” Babies are born, grow teeth, learn to speak. It rains, it snows, it shines. New words enter dictionaries. Poems emerge from sleeping bags.

each spring
breaking through the soil...
the human heart

—From Haibun Triptych, three haibun originally published in Blue Fifth Review (special issue: “The blue collection 9: Home” [Winter 2018/18.10]), and later made into a video in honor of International Haiku Poetry Day 2019, organized by The Haiku Foundation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=116&v=KHVFd5bkctQ&feature=emb_logo

“And yet” appears above with author’s permission.

Stella Pierides

is a British poet of Greek descent who divides her time between Neusaess, Germany, and London, England. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors of The Haiku Foundation (THF) and works on its Haikupedia (encyclopedia of haiku) project.

Interweaving the past with the present, Stella’s work is located at the meeting points of cultural, social, and psychological worlds, which spark the day-to-day moments of our lives. Her work has been published in numerous print and online journals and anthologies. She has co-edited and contributed to Even Paranoids Have Enemies: New Perspectives on Paranoia and Persecution (Routledge, 1998) and Beyond Madness (JKP, 2002).

Recent books include Feeding the Doves, short stories and haibun (Fruit Dove Press, 2013); and two books, In the Garden of Absence, micro-poetry and haiku (Fruit Dove Press, 2012), and Of This World, haibun (Red Moon Press, 2017), which received Haiku Society of America Merit Awards for books published in 2012 and 2017, respectively.

For more info, visit her website and blog at: https://stellapierides.com