Stories in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, Down in the Dirt, and Shooter magazine.
It’s grey skies and a chill wind in Scotland as we head towards the year’s end, so here are a couple of moody haiku…
Coal
A year’s fag-end gloams,
Underlit by coals, over-
hung by mauve smoke skeins.
Continue reading “Coal and Curl | Haiku”
We’re in the middle of a cold snap in Scotland, as you might be able to tell…
Caster
Caster dusting on
Bin lid and bough, sill and stoop.
Open, winter skies.
Continue reading “Caster and Creak | Haiku”
We’re through the darkness and into the dawn with a couple of haiku today…
Sleeping
Night thrown long, over
Sleeping byre, over quiet moor,
Over windswept swell.
Soft
Soft shift of embers.
Fragile whites, glowing ruby,
Fading in the dawn.
Continue reading “Sleeping and Soft | Haiku”
A couple of hiking haiku today…
Mud
Mud around the legs
Of the foot-worn, wind-weathered
Stile. A way across.
Continue reading “Mud and More | Haiku”
Morning folks,
It’s been wild, wet, and windy here in Scotland, where Autumn has made itself known this week. Hopefully these are a couple of haiku to speak to this…
Creep
Breached riverbanks. Creep
Of foam-swirled menace towards
Sandbag-stacked doorframes.
Curl
Weather turning. An
Edged wind, the first curling of
Leaves once lush, once lithe.
*Thanks for reading, folks. Images courtesy of Ian S and Pixabay. My recent short stories include ‘Little Daily Miracles‘ and ‘Those Abroad‘.
Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/mjrichardso0.
Autumn has arrived in Scotland this week with the coming of Storm Agnes. I have a couple of thematic haiku, although we’re not quite in frosty territory just yet…
Cobble
Ribbons of coal smoke
Low over cobbled closes,
Under icy eaves.
Read more: Cobble and Cloud | Haiku
Cloud
Gutters brim-full with
Birds’ nests and leaves, moss and mulch.
Bruised clouds overhead.
*Thanks for reading, folks. Images courtesy of Brock Roseberry and Alan Devine. My recent short stories include ‘Little Daily Miracles‘ and ‘Those Abroad‘.
Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/mjrichardso0.
I was able to make the titles of my haiku alliterative this week, so all is well in the world again. We’re hanging off the trees and running through rock this week…
Claw
Slow, first withering.
A once-plush leaf beginning
To claw, to crumple
Read more: Claw and Quieten | HaikuQuieten
Subterranean
Run through slate-laden strata,
Through long-quietened mines.
*Thanks for reading, folks. images courtesy of George Hodan and Spodzone. My recent short stories include ‘The Lamplighter‘ and ‘Those Abroad‘.
Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/mjrichardso0.
Morning folks,
whilst I usually like to utilise alliteration or assonance in my double-haiku titles, this week’s creations simply wouldn’t go that way, hence the below, slightly idiosyncratic, pairing…
Bristle
Bristled, finger-brushed,
Wind-shifted and sun-beaten.
Pale green to yellow.
Read more: Bristle and Mulch | Haiku
Mulch
Plant pot remains, damp
Cuttings and dinner leavings.
From messy to mulched.
*Thanks for reading, folks. Former image Copyright Matthew J. Richardson. Second image courtesy of Wikipedia. My recent short stories include ‘The Lamplighter‘ and ‘After‘.
Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/mjrichardso0.
A couple of salt-flecked haiku this morning…
Shrill
Shrill-whistled calling.
Wheeling white, black, and orange –
Oystercatcher’s flight.
Swell
Double-flash…dark.
A paraffin carousel
On Atlantic swell.
*Thanks for reading, folks. Images courtesy of Wikipedia and Chris Downer. My recent short stories include ‘Digging‘ and ‘After‘.
Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/mjrichardso0.
Below,
Water-worn
Dry stone bones,
Loose in rheumy mud gums.
A shepherd’s shieling, uncovered
By humming sun
And streams-stopped-running.
Earthbound pottery ossicles
Litter a river-licked,
Slick loch bottom,
Flanked by Ochil hills
And the bulking hulk
Of Upper Glendevon Dam.
Above,
Bruised cumuli hang ribboned between the hill heads,
Broiling, born amongst corries and high-strewn boulders.
A rumble, and rain films on the moors,
Through suddenly sodden fleece and field,
Flicked and shivered from huddled feathers,
Amidst the peat banks and the tufted grass,
Guttering, gathered in the crooked dykes –
Trickling in earshot but out of sight, and
Rushing underneath the dog-eared booms.
Below,
A rippling, a gathering pour,
A foetal push onto cracked reservoir floor.
At the shieling, moor-cold, alluvial fingers grope between weathered stone joints,
Curling under where eaves once hung.
*Thanks for reading, folks. Image courtesy of Rob Burke. My recent short stories include ‘Digging‘ and ‘After‘.
Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/mjrichardso0.
Matthew Richardson 
