Friday, December 21, 2007

Monday, November 12, 2007

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

under trees
the wet leaves quieten
my footsteps
revisting the places
where we walked

Saturday, October 06, 2007

holly berries
bright against
a St Luke's summer sky
the world through
a bird's eye

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

a leaf
in autumn, drying out
takes on a twist
that reminds me
of a wry smile

Friday, September 21, 2007

the sun
and moon and stars
are all just pictures
in a children's
story book

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Writing on eggshells
recording words on skin
with a finger tip
across the misted
window of a train

Saturday, September 08, 2007

their argument
ends in silence
beside the war memorial
a sparrow perches
on the stone lion's ear

Thursday, August 23, 2007

lost and found

sometimes I put things down
and lose them
it must be
my age
a while ago I lost
the word
vivid
but today I found it
quite unexpectedly
up a tree
in the park
against the blue
of a late summer sky
the vivid green of leaves
where the sun
catches the eye

Saturday, August 18, 2007

a summer shower
shivering the surface
of the sea
and all the colours
darken in the rain

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

If I could share it with you
breaking it
by hand
if necessary
bread would do

Sunday, August 05, 2007

taking it
to bed with me - the warmth
of the day's sun
my clumsiness -
a picture of the Buddha
falls to the floor

Starting

Starting today
with this grey garment
I’m going to throw away
everything that’s ugly in my life
and keep only the cheerful
and the beautiful
I will do it quite slowly
one unlovely item at a time
there’s no rush to complete
the work of a lifetime.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Wings of Desire

In the comments section a few posts back Alan Summers mentioned a film - Wings of Desire -that I hadn't seen and alerted to me something quite wonderful. The script is made up in large part of the poetry of Peter Handke, much of which shares the spirit of haiku and related forms. I also found this essay, Angels and the Modern City by Eric Mader Lin, on the symbolism of the film. All links well worth following.


...Normal poetry will be resumed following this cinematic break...

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Friday, July 27, 2007

casually
cutting into soft flesh -
avocado pear
I was falling
but someone caught me
and brought me
ever so gently
back down to earth

Thursday, July 26, 2007

there is something
that I want, very much, to do
it might help
if I knew
what it was

This is not a tanka, but it may be a kyoka
an Asda bag
taken by the wind
higher and higher
my neighbour's
raised voice - you're not hearing
what I'm saying!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Friday, July 20, 2007

What I would do if... a tanka sequence

if I had wings
I would land
in a flurry of feathers
on your lawn
one sunset

when you
came to see
what caused the sound
I would gather you up
in a feathery embrace

I would
carry you away
over the hills
across the borders
to a land between

in a place so strange
a girl with wings
would come alive
because you could
believe in her

when I brought you
home
I would beat my wings
like birds do
when coming in to land

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

one year on -
no tan lines on my
ring finger
On losing hold of an angel's tail

It never lifted me
too high - an inch at the most
it was just a lightness
a welcome counterbalance
to relentless gravity



[Edited and much improved (I think) version. ]

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

the most casual
of gestures can betray
a tenderness
so strong it almost
pierces the heart

Friday, June 29, 2007

waking
from a dream of flying
I wonder
what I might have left
behind upon the earth

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Friday, June 08, 2007

Sunday, May 20, 2007

halfway through
re-reading an old story
I realise
how much of it
is true

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Thursday, May 03, 2007

unicyclist
following
a stilt jumper
among the office workers
making their way home

Monday, April 30, 2007

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Monday, April 09, 2007

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Monday, February 26, 2007

A London haibun

Unable to sleep, I try to reconcile the experiences of the day, to tease out the common threads, to find the pattern hidden in the voices, colours, shapes and motions.

water lilies -
my shadow falls
across the bridge

The exhibition shows impressions of a remote and long departed here and now. A reality which, close up, reveals it's nature in dry pigment.

a glint of gilt
distracted from the picture
by the frame

The play strikes me as more poetic than narrative. Everyone has their view, their opinion of what it's 'really all about'. What is it about for you? What nerves does it touch?

city night
out of the steady drone
a howl

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Friday, February 16, 2007

Friday, February 02, 2007

winter almost over
I rewind the film to see
the whiteness
of the actor's costume
up against the skin

Friday, January 26, 2007

first night
under the winter quilt
dreaming
of someone dreaming
of someone else

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Friday, January 19, 2007

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Monday, January 01, 2007

first dream
Sykes and
a fluffy toy crab


[I doubt if this will mean much to anyone under a certain age, and even then... ]