My iPhone has deduced that I have a new partner. Ever since he and I took that trip to Paris after the final Covid lockdown, it’s been presenting me with automatic slideshows of the two of us, calling them “Early Moments Together”. There are shots of us enjoying cups of café crème and croissants in a street cafe, looking at masterpieces in the Musée D’Orsay and enjoying a boat trip along the Seine. Not content with the Parisian highlights, my smartphone has also presented a few photos of us back in Dublin: getting ice creams at the end of Dún Laoghaire’s granite pier, and evidently having a romantic stroll farther south in sunny Shanganagh Cemetery, in a green belt by the coast, with clear views of the purple-brown Wicklow Mountains.

family likeness ...
the only thing separating us 
our parents’ gravestone  

Maeve O’Sullivan

is an Irish poet, writer, and mentor who resides in Dublin and works as a tutor of journalism in further (i.e., continuing) education. Her haikai have been widely published, anthologized, awarded, and translated into ten languages including Russian and Quechua. She has consistently appeared on the list of European Top 100 most creative haiku authors since 2013 and has published five haikai collections with Alba Publishing: Double Rainbow: Haiku Poetry (jointly with Kim Richardson, 2005); Initial Response: An A–Z of Haiku Moments (2011); A Train Hurtles West: Haiku Poetry (2015); Elsewhere: Around the World in Poetry, Haiku & Haibun (2017); and Wasp on the Prayer Flag: Haiku and Senryu (2021).

O’Sullivan leads workshops, mentors individuals in haikai, and writes reviews for various journals including Blithe Spirit. She was a founding member of Haiku Ireland (now defunct) and the Hibernian Poetry Workshop, and she has been an active member of the British Haiku Society since 2000.

Author’s website: https://maeveosullivan.com/

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ New to Haiku: Advice for Beginners, interview of Maeve O’Sullivan by Julie Bloss Kelsey in Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog (11 September 2022)