Poem in Faith: 2024 ACU Prize for Poetry

Andrew’s poem “The Mother and the Idol” was shortlisted for the 2024 ACU Prize for Poetry and has been published in the prize anthology, Faith: 2024 ACU Prize for Poetry, edited by Robert H. F. Carver and Margot Hillel.

“The Mother and the Idol” is a suite or set of five haiku (known as a “gunsaku”) focused on the stone statues and carvings of Jizo Bosatsu, believed by Japanese women to be the guardian of the souls of miscarried, aborted and stillborn children (known as “mizuko”, water children).

The first haiku of this set is:

For her mizuko
a mother ties a red bib
around Lord Jizo.

© Andrew Lansdown