Tuesday 28 December 2010

Weather

Hunched, tramp and heron
stare intently at ice and
review their next meal.

Bethlehem

Herod feared the birth,
Walls now prison the site, but
Love's message endures.

Sunday 12 December 2010

A year on

Darkness has lifted
Grief and spirit have retuned,
The tunnel's light, found.

Project fruition

Vocally brassy,
Stage fright acute, new actors
Psyche up to conquer.

Hedgerow


Thursday 25 November 2010

Shades...

Brave, remaining leaves
You too, will soon be cast off:
Our destinies touch.

Monday 1 November 2010

Salt marshes

The wind reed-whispers,

gulls grumble, mud burps:

'marsh music' ....

shattered by jets.

Haiku

Sucked into quicksands
of memory, a life line
is given - of laughter.

Sunday 17 October 2010

East coast erosion


Waves corkscrew along
the beach, chewing the cliff's feet -
spitting its sandy gain.

Monday 11 October 2010

Liu Xiaobo

Silence the words,
Lock up the speaker
BUT
The peace prize opens the cage.

Monday 27 September 2010

North Norfolk

Loved landscape, lonely
now of its close family draw:
Have the ties untied?

Trend setters

Fragile wing beauty
with op art patterns, shaping
fashion butterflies.

Saturday 18 September 2010

Cycle

Fading, the old moon
cradles the new in its arms:
Hope born from the past.

A large red damselfly


Tuesday 31 August 2010

Syria

Lost epoques leave scars
layered like filo pastry
on Damascus' present.

Resafe

Half hidden in the sand

is a place of martrydom:

Brave acts still witness.





On the road to Aleppo
Stony desert, but
Children wave, we smile, unite
and move on. Salaam.



Thursday 19 August 2010

Haiku

Arms stretched in welcome,
swathed in green and shimmering;
dear friend; stately oak.

Mourning

Their voices are stilled;
they speak differently now,
fine tuning the loss.

Friday 23 July 2010

Haiku

Wrinkles on water,
Dragonflies play, a frog stares,
Beneath, algae chokes.

Yellow











Thursday 8 July 2010

Landscape

Green, yellow, brown, yes -
but blue? A field of sky;
Different - like pink mud.

Seeing

With shut eyes, he glimpsed
another space where hope and
truth lay untrampled.

Shrewsbury patterns


Monday 28 June 2010

Lost words refound

A random dandy,
tripping the streets,
pose daudling
being a fopdoodle.

Thursday 17 June 2010

The Greenwood

New leaves in sunlight
cast lime light across the glade -
zebra stripes in greens.

Sunday 6 June 2010

The Ark

Loved places are sold,
so 'home' moves to memory -
boats slip their moorings.

Saturday 22 May 2010

Sunday 9 May 2010

Hung

We've hung around - lots -
Hung washing, men, ham, but now
We've hung parliament.

A May verge


Thursday 29 April 2010

Haiku

Trees have their lacy tops on
In a shade of green
Good for trees - not walls!

Volcano

Aircraft are grounded
and the world is resized as
travellers need new routes.

Tuesday 6 April 2010

Bike ride

Matress, loo, paint, pipes
Dumped on the hedgerow like black
Stains on wedding clothes.

Moving on

Walk with tide and tern
on mud, marsh, creek and wave edge;
loved places, farewell.

Wednesday 31 March 2010

A Sequence

Ideas clash, words flow

Books are written,

Minds meet;

Joy reads them -

Fear burns them.

Saturday 27 March 2010

Margaret de Bibbesworth


Her names endures in
brass and farm: status then,
A fleeting thought now.

Helen of Troy

Was it worth it?
Beauty's eternal celeb but -
Raped, blamed and blood steeped.

Sunday 14 March 2010

Mother's day 2010

No green shoots dress trees

this year,

No daffodils blaze,

Mum's not here either.

Friday 5 March 2010

Driving or Life?

A crater yawns - swerve -
a crack, zig, hole, zag ....abyss....
Trapped between pitfalls.

Sunday 28 February 2010

Leaf colour


Husband = exercise bike: Me = the real thing

What's he missing? Space,

Catkins, views, raw air, puddles -

bet he's warmer though!

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Love

Time and winds carve sands
to desert roses - like love -
exquisite flowering.

Haiku

The year's cycle is
memories' stumbling block now
that you are not here.

Sunday 7 February 2010

Haiku

Bright, white snowdrops ease
Shrunk, winter souls like a
Hot bath for stiff limbs.

St Albans Abbey


Thursday 4 February 2010

Sophocles

Was this the head whose

brain wrote Oedipus - a life

scarred by hidden acts?

Haiku

Turbulent water
has quietened now leaving wakes
of edged memories.

Monday 25 January 2010

The Dream of the Non Pianist

The silent piano
Quivers with joy, like the crowd,
As I start Bach's fugue.

Style

Words of grace and care
Live long unlike e-mail
Utility speak.

Wednesday 13 January 2010

John

My father died in November 2009. The following three haikus span the time just before his death to now. The first one encapsulates what I consider to be his last significant words - to me at least.
"Moving on".
Nutshell words
from a mind still aware
though the body fails.
3.11.09
A parentless year:
We're the oldest now -
in new clothes which are too big.
3.1.10
Rueful, I muse on
questions I didn't ask,
phone calls i can't make
now.
13.1.10