Beverley Farmer (1941–2018) was the author of four collections of short stories, including This Water: Five Tales, which was longlisted for the 2018 Stella Prize; the writer’s notebook, A Body of Water; The Bone House, a collection of essays; and the novels The Seal Woman, The House in the Light, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and Alone, which will be published by Giramondo in a new edition in May. These poems are taken from a newly discovered collection of seasonal haiku.
Some at blood heat, somecold, the pools have faint waves ofsand, shadow and light.
This constant drippingon the sand sounds like footstepsnever coming close.
Now is slack water,dead water, between two tides,two lives of the sea.
Clouds in the green waveloom, chrome yellow, sand, out ofnowhere, a…