The church was almost empty. That’s what happens when you live too long. No one’s left to come to your funeral. That’s why he specified no service. But a niece ignored his wish, blathering on about the need for closure.

Closure.... There’s a word he would have hated. He didn’t believe in all that rubbish. Sherry before lunch. Whiskey before dinner. A fine old claret with a nice bit of lamb. And if he fell asleep in his chair at night, it really didn’t matter.

clearing out
the old man’s desk
his stash of forever stamps

Harriot West

After many years of teaching ESL at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Harriot West began writing poetry as an antidote to academic writing. Her primary interest is haibun, and she is the author of two award-winning collections, Into the Light (Mountains and River Press, 2014) and Shades of Absence (Red Moon Press, 2018).

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Things I’ll Never Tell You, haibun by Harriot West which was nominated by MacQ for the Red Moon Anthologies, and selected for publication in Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022).

⚡ West’s ekphrastic haibun story Picking Sunflowers for Van Gogh first appeared in KYSO Flash online and is reprinted in our 2016 anthology, State of the Art. And we were thrilled when this charming piece was selected as one of 55 winners for reprinting in The Best Small Fictions 2017 anthology, guest edited by Amy Hempel.

⚡ Featured Writer: Harriot West in Contemporary Haibun Online (Volume 11, Number 1, April 2015); includes “a brief bit of advice” (86 words, in fact) from West on writing haibun, as well as her haibun “A Brief Analysis of Contemporary Society As Seen Through My Eyes”

⚡ Until One Day I Said Enough: Harriot West on Haibun, an interview by Jeffrey Woodward in Haibun Today (Volume 9, Number 1, March 2015)