The Window That Closes

WINNER TURTLE LIGHT PRESS 2012 HAIKU CHAPBOOK AWARD
Graham High’s The Window That Closes offers a glimpse into the close relationship between a British son and his mother in her final days. Through the use of haiku, a Japanese poetry form, High masterfully etches their last days together, which are filled with both quiet and heart-rending moments. High helps us to reaffirm life through this poignant collection of poems.

"A powerful evocation of the final few weeks in the life of the author’s mother. The overall sequence develops into an episodic narrative which is both a positive and a life-affirming experience for the reader. High achieves this by avoiding sentimentality and by writing from the perspective of the dispassionate observer."
David Bingham, Editor, Blithe Spirit

Graham High first became interested in haiku during 1999. Since then he has had eight collections of haiku published and one collection of haibun. He edited the British Haiku Society Journal, Blithe Spirit, from 2005 – 2008 and is currently the Society’s President. He came to haiku rather late in his writing career following a life-long commitment to all forms of poetry and creative writing. He has had four collections of poetry published in the UK to date and gives periodic public readings of his work.

In his professional life, he is most active as a visual artist and his creative practice covers both painting and sculpture. As a painter, he has exhibited in a great many group shows and has had more than 40 one-person expositions both in the UK and internationally. In 1989 he was one of the first artists to be invited to hold a personal exhibition in post-Soviet Russia. As a sculptor, he is more traditional and works primarily in bronze. He is active principally in the field of portraiture and wildlife sculpture. In 1994, he was elected an associate member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors and has received many public commissions for his work.

Alongside this activity, he has fitted in a parallel career for 25 years as an Animatronic Model Designer in the Feature Film Industry working on approximately 35 mainstream films including Aliens, The English Patient, Babe, Labyrinth, The Flintstones, 101 Dalmatians and the Harry Potter series. His contributions to in-front-of-camera special effects have been mainly in the field of animatronic creature effects but have also encompassed prosthetic make-up, miniature sets and character design.

In 2005, he decided that The Golden Compass would be his last film in the realisation that computer graphics were replacing the areas previously occupied by physical effects and he has since enjoyed being able to produce a more concentrated output of painting and writing. In his personal life, he is married to Frances and shares his time in the UK between his two homes: one in southeast London, the other on the sea coast of north Norfolk.