I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

31 July 2013

Falling hard, sudden rain: haiku, June and July 2013

falling hard
sudden rain fills the air
falling loud

15/6/13


confetti
shaken from the box
 
flickering sunlight

***********

setting out
on a new path
many footprints


30/7/13



26 July 2013

My Lover ...

my long-stemmed lily
my lamp in the garden
my wild fragrance
my sun plenitudinous

my close star
my bending willow
my splendid sunset
my tricky sea

my ride-a-cock-horse
my high-stepper
my rearing stallion
my milk-white steed

my born baby
my map-maker
my quiet cradle
my far song

my unbuckled belt
my turning leaf
my whirlpool
my gone traveller


I'm not writing many new poems at present. This is a very old one (written 1974) which fits the current dVerse prompt Listing and also an earlier one, Anaphora.

24 July 2013

Basho on Haiku

Answering a question by Romaru, Basho explains his art:

'...this way is a haikai where, waiting for the cherry blossom or their scattering, the moon becoming cloudy or clear, freely I simply state what I feel in a single verse.

'Nothing else is there to learn.'

He's the Master! So perhaps I have been writing haiku after all. *Smile.*

19 July 2013

An Email

'I thought I was being a good friend,' she said.
'I thought you would like it if I kept asking
all about your days.' (I would have liked it if
she had just let friendship grow at its own pace,
naturally, not trying to plan or force it.)

'It is just as I feared,' she says, 'You don't want to 
tell me each detail of your life. I conclude that you like 
other friends, older friends, better than me. I should be
used to it. I have this trouble from most women.

'I can't stand it,' she says. 'It's wearing me out.
We've come to an impasse and should leave it there.
Take care now,' she says, and signs it, 'Love and hugs.'

Submitted for Poets United's Verse First: Water Table (what wells up)

17 July 2013

But my 'haiku' are not haiku!

I have come to the terrible realisation that most if not all of the pieces I have been posting under the label 'haiku' are not in fact haiku. Somehow the 'juxtaposition' aspect of writing haiku did not sink in properly until just the other day. What I have created are in fact three-line poems. They have some features of haiku, perhaps, but that's not what they are — not even in terms of contemporary haiku in English.

Where I do have some sense of a break between parts of a verse, even an apparent juxtaposition, usually the sense is nevertheless ongoing and linear, which is not the idea.

However, I never pretended to be an expert, so these attempts can stay here for what they're worth. Future attempts will of course incorporate my new understanding. Whether they will even then be haiku ... one can but try!

1 July 2013

The Unseen

Dark moon.
I don't go outside.

I heard deliberate footsteps 
up the front stairs
just before the cats
banged to be let in.

When I opened the door
I half expected to see
a man standing with them.

Instead, before entering 
they turned, looking back 
down the empty steps.

Last night I felt a presence
standing behind my chair.
Today I learn it was that time
my cousin John died.

I don't go out
in the cold, wet dark tonight
but I do say my thanks
to the Goddess.

One way and another
She is with me.


Submitted for dVerse Poetics: fantasy and reality blend. (Supposed to be mirages of summer heat — but it's winter here, which blurs reality in its own way.)