miso soup

NaHaiWriMo x 2

2012-01-29T16:08:00.004Z

I'm going to try to write a haiku a day for NaHaiWriMo and post it here on this blog. I'm also going to try to write something else (haiku, tanka, short poem) a day that I don't post. Even if I don't manage that every day it will be something to aim for and at the end I should have at least some work to send to journals that don't accept the previously blogged.

NaHaiWriMo

2012-01-24T13:21:00.001Z

I might do NaHaiWriMo this year and post the haiku here. That should warm this cold soup up a bit.

2011-09-12T18:32:00.000+01:00

tangled
in holly and ivy -
a fallen angel's wings

Presence #30 Sept 2006

2011-07-04T22:01:00.001+01:00

glorious sunset
over the heads
of the bickering drunks

2011-06-05T21:36:00.003+01:00

after reading
the note I sent myself
in a dream
I know but can't recall
what it said

A life in birds

2011-05-29T19:28:00.004+01:00

A pheasant standing
in the furrows
a hawk's swerve
over the sewage works
magpies flying
low across a field
a pigeon
in the mouth of a dog

Dreaming in colour

2011-04-26T20:36:00.003+01:00

the ladies with a red attitude
the man who spoke in splashes of yellow
even the white room
that was not Hugh's

2011-04-22T22:10:00.002+01:00

closing time -
two drunks argue over which
swear word is worse

Poem written when I didn't have time

2011-04-15T22:02:00.004+01:00

If I only had five minutes to write
I would have to write about this flitter
from one thing to another that I do
and how, now, I'm trying to slow right down
and stop the days from flickering past me
like the view from the window of a train

2011-04-10T20:43:00.003+01:00

how many things
do I need to dispose of
before
each one left
becomes precious?

2011-04-08T19:22:00.002+01:00

spring clarity
the local pub reveals
its old name

2011-04-07T19:57:00.002+01:00

open windows -
all the contrails
feathering

2011-04-07T08:33:00.002+01:00

spring sunshine
in the dust around
a shovelful of rubble

How to resist tyrannical optimism

2011-04-05T11:18:00.009+01:00

Be pessimistic
when disaster looms
pay close attention
at the darkening of each day
find time for sadness
months or years after a loss
admit dissatisfaction with your life
when you have less than you had hoped
be sure you're not persuing someone else's dream
during the programme or the ads
do not suspend your disbelief
when the fourth wall breaks
express your disillusionment
even if others disapprove
refuse to stay forever young.

2011-04-04T09:52:00.002+01:00

gone to seed -
the partisan explains
his point of view

Gained in translation

2011-04-02T14:51:00.004+01:00

Delighted by this translation of one of my haiku by Serge Tomé on temps libres

Satie -
the rain
eases

Satie -
la pluie
diminue

Haiku found on my bookshelf

2011-04-01T12:54:00.007+01:00

embracing the firebird
in the ship's wake
summer dreams

White

2011-04-01T08:29:00.001+01:00

rain turns to snow
it's unclear now what lies concealed
within the radius

without, we suffer nocebo
unless we can
in rational clarity
disregard
the insidiously subtle flow

in air, water, milk
in the frost-white steam
in rain that turns to snow

NaPoWriMo

2011-03-31T11:26:00.002+01:00

NaHaiWriMo was fun, and showed me that I could write a haiku a day if I tried, so maybe NaPoWriMo can be the next stretch I need beyond the comfort zone?

I'd like to use it to give myself a challenge to look out for different types of inspiration, not just the haiku kind. Longer things have appeared here before now but I've never really tried to write them, they just happened occasionally. If this goes to plan there will be some longer poems appearing here, among the haiku, over the next month.

Probably not much longer though, as I remain a dedicated minimalist!

2011-03-21T21:26:00.002Z

the moon at perigee -
something else is tearing
this world apart

NaHaiWriMo

2011-03-06T19:05:00.002Z

I did it! A haiku a day for the whole month of February. I know I said I was aiming for two a day. Somedays I did that, other days the extra verses helped fill what would have been gaps. The thing is when you aim high, even if you don't make it every time, you tend to hit higher overall than if you aim low.

I've not posted yet in March. I can't keep it up. It's not that it was hard. It was a matter of focus and noticing things that are there every day if you just look. But there are so many demands on time and attention. I've tried simplifying life but still those demands are there.

The most important thing we decide every day - and we usually do it without the least bit of real reflection - is what we will pay attention to, what we will give our limited time to.

NaHaiWriMo 28

2011-02-28T17:43:00.005Z

old emails -
our first responses
to each other
and to
9/11

NaHaiWriMo 27

2011-02-27T18:21:00.001Z

Satie -
the rain
eases

NaHaiWriMo 26

2011-02-26T19:56:00.002Z

sudden rainstorm
my place in another world
kept by a bookmark

NaHaiWriMo 25

2011-02-25T17:59:00.001Z

home at last
I listen to
the world news

NaHaiWriMo 24

2011-02-25T11:23:00.002Z

a magpie
hop-skipping from garden
to garden

NaHaiWriMo 23

2011-02-23T18:50:00.004Z

first days of spring -
the sound of a crowd of people
demanding change*

* line 2/3 phrase 'found' in a BBC radio news item

NaHaiWriMo 22

2011-02-23T18:47:00.001Z

February wind -
the word 'crocus'
on the Scrabble board

NaHaiWriMo 21

2011-02-23T18:06:00.001Z

February rain -
the word 'spring'
on the Scrabble board

NaHaiWriMo 20

2011-02-21T10:31:00.001Z

Monday morning
the football stadium
fades into the mist

NaHaiWriMo 19

2011-02-19T18:38:00.002Z

the quiet calm
of a room prepared
for carpet fitters

NaHaiWriMo 18

2011-02-19T09:49:00.000Z

solar flare -
spring moon half-hidden
in the clouds

NaHaiWriMo 17

2011-02-18T17:30:00.002Z

quarter chimes -
spring mist around
the clock tower

NaHaiWriMo 16

2011-02-16T20:57:00.003Z

poetry books
banished to the bathroom -
spring cleaning

NaHaiWriMo 15

2011-02-14T19:20:00.000Z

Valentine's Day -
recycling
old gold

NaHaiWriMo 14

2011-02-14T08:45:00.001Z

pink tissue paper
folded and kept
long after
what it wrapped
was lost

NaHaiWriMo 13

2011-02-13T17:26:00.001Z

the smell of varnish
lingers in the hall
like winter

NaHaiWriMo 12

2011-02-13T11:55:00.002Z

February sun -
a street light still on
in the daytime

NaHaiWriMo 11

2011-02-12T18:39:00.001Z

a line
of chimney pot silhouettes
against the evening sky

NaHaiWriMo 10

2011-02-11T19:13:00.000Z

light rain -
water workers
dig a hole in the road

NaHaiWriMo 9

2011-02-10T17:53:00.002Z

strategic plan -
the sound of distant
foghorns

NaHaiWriMo 8

2011-02-09T21:30:00.000Z

pension plans
the slow drone of a plane
coming in to land

NaHaiWriMo 7

2011-02-08T08:25:00.002Z

the sunset -
in my neighbour's window

NaHaiWriMo 6

2011-02-06T15:13:00.001Z

February sky
the colour
of the castle walls

NaHaiWriMo 5

2011-02-06T12:11:00.001Z

February sun
between the park bench slats
two rows of moss

NaHaiWriMo 4

2011-02-04T20:35:00.000Z

Chinese market -
a row of small gold buddhas
share a smile

NaHaiWriMo 3

2011-02-03T20:22:00.000Z

morning frost
every blade of grass
winks

NaHaiWriMo 2

2011-02-02T17:59:00.002Z

warning lights
around the roadworks
by the pub -
softened by fog

NaHaiWriMo 1

2011-02-01T19:14:00.001Z

the early news -
a red glow spreads across
the eastern sky

Upping the ante

2011-01-31T18:01:00.002Z

I'm going to set myself a personal challenge. Not only will I write a haiku a day as part of NaHaiWriMo and publish it here but I will also write another which I will not post online. You'll just have to trust me on this.

NaHaiWriMo

2011-01-31T17:18:00.002Z

It starts tomorrow! NaHaiWriMo!

2011-01-26T21:33:00.002Z

between trees
the twist and flutter
of police tape

Noticing things

2011-01-20T08:39:00.002Z

Sometimes writing the kind of thing I post here comes ridiculously easily, sometimes it becomes impossibly difficult. I'm not sure of all the reasons but partly it's about a loss of focus. Being too busy. Sometimes I need to slow down to make things come back into focus. There's a plan afoot for a group of people to write a haiku a day during February and I'm hoping that taking part in that might help me get the focus back. I want to start noticing things again, not let them all go by in a blur of busyness.

spring moon
a burst of song
from a passing cyclist

2010-12-02T19:59:00.002Z

words
I never said
to you
the song of a bird
in a bitter wind

Blithe Spirit Vol.10 No.4, December 2000
The Tanka Anthology. Edited by Michael McClintock. Red Moon Press. 2003

To a bird I hope is still singing.

2010-12-01T20:08:00.002Z

moonlight
on waves
the ebb and flow
of the sea that joins
your island to mine

Presence #15 September 2001

2010-11-30T20:39:00.001Z

cold rain
the greengrocer stacks cabbages
on cabbages

Snapshots #10 2004

2010-11-29T12:42:00.002Z

grey day
the only bright spot
a red traffic light

Blithe Spirit Vol.16 No.2 June 2006

2010-11-29T12:07:00.005Z

Miso Soup's gone off the boil lately. I'm thinking of changing the recipe. For a while at least I'm going to post some golden oldies (previously published in various places) rather than anything new. I'll try to pick ones that fit the current mood. Let's see how that goes.

2010-09-07T09:23:00.002+01:00

a window frames
the whole free world
in one white gull

2010-08-05T22:15:00.004+01:00

running water
just deep enough
to carry sunshine
down the stream

a rivulet of water
from wet hair
finds a graceful path
over the body

in the evening
on the kitchen floor
stepping in water
from the morning's rain

in the darkness
the inky depth
of red wine
only in its taste

2010-07-11T18:18:00.000+01:00

2am conversation in the street below the lamplight

2010-06-30T19:34:00.000+01:00

before the sun sets
gull chicks
try their wings

2010-06-24T20:02:00.001+01:00

before we were born
perhaps, we were offered
a choice of lives
and chose our own
over all others

2010-06-17T23:00:00.000+01:00

among the roses
unexpectedly blue -
love-in-a-mist

2010-05-24T18:32:00.002+01:00

siesta -
a curtain of daisy chains
hangs from a low branch

2010-05-14T19:46:00.000+01:00

between
the Prime Minister's words
birdsong

2010-03-21T12:32:00.002Z

doing nothing
beautifully
narcissi

2010-03-20T21:08:00.001Z

guilty at having
forgotten to feed
the baby
I realise it's alright
it's just a doll

2010-03-12T19:43:00.004Z

I have to go soon. I need to fetch an important package that I left behind. Time is getting short. There are people coming. Some of them have already arrived, but I'm still putting it off. It's not far, but the last time I came up that way I walked into a white fog. It was so dense I could barely see the ground. All I could do was force myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other, following my instinct on where the right path was, until I came out of it. The sky is now a bright, clear blue but I have a cold dread of walking into the fog again on that path. I have to go soon.

looking back on it
from a distance
the fog bank
as impenetrable from outside
as from within

2010-03-01T14:57:00.001Z

as the sky shades
deeper and deeper blue
tiny lights
in the windows
of an incoming plane

2010-02-19T10:13:00.000Z

sunlight on glass
the thin, high whistle
of a bird

2010-02-17T08:11:00.001Z

eye of the storm
I find myself romantically
becalmed
while all around me
are being ship-wrecked

2010-02-13T18:54:00.002Z

winter stars
half-way up the tower block
a light flickers

2010-02-12T08:36:00.001Z

recession deepens -
a flurry of statistics
on the morning news

2010-01-25T19:29:00.002Z

almost understanding
what the trees are writing
across the evening sky

2010-01-11T19:49:00.000Z

bitter cold
the path that used to be
safe and familiar
threatens to bring me down
with every step

kyoka

2009-09-08T18:05:00.003+01:00

the hotel plays
'My Generation'
over breakfast
a couple round about my age
complain about the noise

Focus

2009-08-26T08:28:00.002+01:00

"...we began seeing one another..." he said, and I thought of people going about their daily routine, exchanging a brief smile with a shop assistant, half noticing passers-by in the street, glancing at work colleagues on the way to their desks, all in a blur of humanity. And then one day something shifts, eye contact is made, and someone comes into clearer focus.

approaching autumn
in this morning's post a note
from the optician

2009-07-30T21:00:00.001+01:00

rising over
an empty nest
half-moon

2009-07-25T19:42:00.002+01:00

second-hand buddha - £500

2009-07-25T19:40:00.000+01:00

haiku journal -
using it to rescue
a bee

2009-07-10T20:35:00.001+01:00

someone has found
what they're looking for -
bee in the lavender

Learning not to swim

2009-06-14T21:07:00.002+01:00

I'm all at sea but that's ok
it's not that I am not at home
it's good to swim then turn and float
between the water and the air
and feel the surface like a skin.

If I should dream of hot, dry land
it's not that I would wish to walk
or run or dance but only
lap against the shore and feel
it's marvellous, alien permanence.

2009-06-10T21:32:00.000+01:00

keep on swinging
from hope to hope
it's a circus
but hey,
you're still flying

2009-06-02T20:18:00.000+01:00

conspiracy theory
the surveillance camera
turns a blind eye

2009-05-27T18:58:00.002+01:00

coming in to land
the plane is
perfect
but everything
below has crashed

2009-05-07T22:19:00.000+01:00

with both hands
the toddler holds up
an Elvis umbrella

2009-04-27T10:48:00.002+01:00

strange rooms
and forking paths
in my dreams
I deliberately
lose myself

2009-04-19T10:49:00.001+01:00

playing cards
on the train
she takes his hand

2009-04-08T20:46:00.001+01:00

evening train -
the young commuter reads
a president's biography

2009-03-30T08:38:00.000+01:00

after dreams -
a clear sky
and a hard frost

2009-03-28T16:13:00.002Z

westbound train
sliding out from under
back-lit cloud

2009-03-26T20:50:00.000Z

in the middle
of a spring green field -
a headless scarecrow

2009-03-18T00:47:00.003Z

maybe we live
to dream
and eternity is spun
from the dream worlds
we have made

2009-03-18T00:42:00.003Z

some insights
can only be expressed
by a splash
of orange
against green

2009-02-22T19:28:00.001Z

against the grey
a white gull
turns and turns and turns

2009-02-22T19:27:00.001Z

mid-February
a clear view
of Windwhistle Tower

2009-02-14T15:51:00.001Z

February rain
two
under one umbrella

2009-02-09T20:00:00.000Z

through the office window - wind whistle

2009-02-02T21:41:00.001Z

all night in silence
the world
whitening