winter 
	what I thought 
	I wanted 
	
	red leaves 
	morph 
	into metaphors 
	
	I don’t think of her 
	and it all goes wrong—
	cruel season 

everything 
a metaphor for 		be 
this 			        present 
			        death 

	tired from grief 
	at my mistakes 
	no lightness today 

people worry 
about objects 

you want 
a statue of me 
at the waterfront 
I, a punch & judy stand 

	living together 
	you become them—
	microbes 

languages 
with silent 
letters 

the last 
of the light 
touches trees 

reading half-heartedly 
these empty 
moments 
imagine 
choosing 
happiness 

words 
scream silently 
they hit the page 

	putting down the glass 
	not exactly in the centre 
	of the coaster—
	my little rebellion 
	against myself 
	
	it’s me who didn’t trust—
	I love her so much 
	it scares me 

my entire 
output 
a pinch of salt 

humility 
buries me 
in sand 

I felt guilt 
eating wild strawberries 
far from home 

the etymology of despair 
from the Latin desperare 
to be without hope 

and isn’t that good 
if hope 
is an impoverished word? 

*

Sometimes, meditation stirs or stimulates thoughts, 
rather than stilling them. 

	glad to see him 
	my brother 
	ten years dead 
	
	sleeplessness—
	was it 
	chocolate? 
	
	middle of the night 
	sofa 
	being 
	
	meditation—
	finding myself 
	already here 
	
	back to bed 
	cold and tired 
	from waking 

Owen Bullock’s

most recent publication is the poetry collection Pancakes for Neptune (Recent Work Press, 2023), following three previous poetry titles, five books of haiku, a bilingual edition of tanka, and a novella. He is Discipline Lead for Creative Writing and Literary Studies at the University of Canberra. His research interests include creative arts and wellbeing; haikai literature; poetry and process; semiotics and poetry; prose poetry; and collaboration. His other interests include music, juggling, gardening, and chess.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ If that was so, why this? by Owen Bullock on pages 69-70 of The Darling Exchange in TEXT: Journal of writing and writing courses (Volume 29, No. 1, April 2025; pages 56-72).

The Darling Exchange includes poetry and prose by 11 authors, listed here in the order in which their pieces appear within the collective project: Cassandra Atherton, Dominique Hecq, Eugen Bacon, Gay Lynch, Jen Webb, Jessica Seymour, Julia Prendergast, Katrina Finlayson, Owen Bullock, Paul Hetherington, and Shady Cosgrove.

“Springboarding from the ubiquitous ‘Kill your darlings’ writing advice, this project is a co-authored collection of sudden writing in which each contributor offers a darling line from a previous project that, for one reason or another, had to be cut. These lines are then ‘adopted’ by another writer and used as a prompt for a very short prose/poetry piece...” (from the project’s introduction in TEXT).

⚡ Editing Haiku, an essay by Bullock in haiku newz (reprinted from Frogpond 46:3, Autumn 2023)

⚡ A Poetry Showcase from Owen Bullock in Fevers of the Mind (21 August 2023)

⚡ The Alan Gogoll Trio, haibun by Bullock in OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters, aka O:JA&L (21 November 2022)