Fireworks

East Hills' Sands

North Norfolk

Lazy mists in drifts,

Geese in urgent formation

Span the salt marshes.

Autumn puddle

Haiku

Truth is under pressure

A leaf dances

Poised between alternatives.

Ibis

The Painted and the Painter

The Painted and the Painter

Put risk on the scales

Weighed against safety ....

This time

It 's not attractive.

Hawks and creeps surround me

Waiting for my weakness

To swoop like jackdaws

On my perceived 'jewels'.

What does he see this artist?

Unknit  my  forehead,

Remain bland, in control.

Relaxed, he will see

My status

My riches

My red gown,

Not my dilemma,

The monkey knot of possibilities.

My mask is in place

I'm still now, even smile

This man will see me not.

I will look at my outward self and see

What the world sees.

How futile my false face was

This man has glimpsed my soul.

He has shown my care,

Seen my uncertainty:

my hands betray me.

Artists should not be trusted

He has found my hidden skin

And wormed his way inside.

My contradictions are exposed.

He's begun to watch me

His eyes flickering from 'the pose'.

Seeing his portrait has disturbed,

His air has changed.

Have I been too bold?

My task is to flatter -

To paint rainbows on puddles

BUT butterflies are not worms.

I like this man

I don' t want lies to be his epitaph.

He's been gentle with me;

I'm a fly to his spider

But he's not tried

To trap me in his wishes,

He has given me freedom,

I'll give him, sincerity.

Inspired by Pontormo 's Portrait of Cosimo (Medici) the Elder

River pageant: Queen's Jubilee

Water impressions: Slovakia

Final days of Lent

Trickles of water

etch their way through the mudflats

        small, but eyes rest there.        4.4

Planing on thermals

the gannet achieves

effortless, joyous

                      freedom.                 5.4

Good Friday

The temple's veil ripped -

No barriers left between

              God and humble man.         6.4

His death like his birth

is of infinite mystery -

               faith, but not knowledge.         7.4

Old friends are rejoined

Blue and green blend to turquoise

              Colouring of joy.            8.4

Lent Challenge Week 6

Dawn touches the porch

before the huge East End Glass

                     The least shall be first.         28.3

60

60 has gained in status:

‘Now we are 6’ has been reborn

as ‘Now we are‘60’ and appeals

 to present seekers for aged

Christopher Robins. Before

Our ‘strapped for cash’ existence

60 was the age of recline

Goodbye work, welcome other things....

It’s a transitional age today:

Forgetfulness and prime in union.

To ancient Babylonians,

60 was beautiful

Perfectly divisible

By a raft of numbers;

Before fractions, this meant much.

Mathematicians, they yearned

For measures for shape:

A circle’s degrees became 360:

The joy of symmetry

6o exalted by times 6,

Arbitrary, yet chosen.

The excitement of trapping form,

Cake division simplified.

It adds mystique

                To a benchmark age.               29.3

Pushed in the scanner's mouth

The scanner growled and sang its divining

                  and made magnet pictures.               30.3

An ostrich on pro-sac

panic petrol buying

              Where have we gone wrong?         31.3

Palm Sunday

Cheers turned to jeers

then "Crucify"

in six days;

Palms to sticks

Love to stone.

After the Operation

"Don't hobble, don't limp"

Beget smoothness:

                  We take walking for granted.         2.4

Hands which blessed others

were nailed to a cross

             to bring us deeper blessing.         3.4

Lent Challenge - week 5

M1 Junction 9

Beneath the wheat lies

our past: a pagan temple,

                  Shapes seen from the air.          21.3

Tilt the earth more and

the Sahara's green,

               twist a knee and freedom's lost.     22.3

Some words damage us

churn like leaves in a whirlpool

                        killing confidence.                 23.3

Great poster, smart words

A call to passing eyes:

                     "Write more poetry".            24.3

Dew lights each thread,

the death trap sparkling its lure

                         greedy for victims.                        25.3

Walls divide people,

paper ripped in two

                    Forgiveness the new mountain.            26.3

May flowering in March

Hosepipe bans in April but

                       The sun makes us smile.                 27.3

Lent Challenge Week 4

Our lemon tree bears one lemon

in mottled green,

-a year's growth-

                              but Time perfects!                14.3.12

Church Cleaning

Sewn hassocks tell stories:

often done in memory

                                 always in love.                 15.3.12

Wind through tissue paper,

responses to a picture,

                                 Ideas take root.                  16.3.12  

After the funeral

Stark against the hillside

stands a white deer amongst brown,

                               Spirits lift to joy.                   16.3.12

Millennium window Great Malvern

Dawn touches sunset

Bringing fire to stained glass art,

                        Time, in a moment.               17.3.

Ruth

"Where you go, I shall go"                      

Love and trust walk together,

                          Faith truly blessed.               18. 3              

We basked in the sun

the red admiral and me

                       sharing our delight.                 19.3.

Disabled

Weigh up the distance

Balance pain against the Gain:

                 a fractured glass choice.           20.3

Lent Challenge - week 3

Spurs versus Stevenage

Expected to lose,

cheered to win, to defy fate

                            and give us all hope.                7.3.12

Journey to work

Pink against the brown

bald, stark tree-lines are softened:

                          blossom has arrived.               8.3.12

Crouched in fear, victims

cringe with each bombardment as

                           Syria self -harms.                 9.3.12

Figures in a field,

caressing it like lovers,

                    detecting the past.              0.3

Pause a moment

Underground posters

ask for ‘acts of kindness’.

Are they so rare that

we have to log them?

Or, is it to make us stop

-          reconsider –

     ask ourselves

When did I last act kindly?

In our beleaguered world,

where price is all,

kind acts cost nothing

but thought and acting upon it.

Perhaps the posters seek celebration

                   of a more selfless world.                11.3      

Dark and fraught with stuff

handbags are pits, deceiving

                        hands groping for keys.               12.3

Standing in a Square

full of squares, in black and white

                     I move like a knight.                     13.3

                   

Lent Challenge Week 2

Mixed Motives

Lurking in shadows

lie 'not so good' reasons for

                           apparent selflessness.             28.2.12

Booby

Muscles tense, shock,stare,

confirm: my blunder is stark

                          -tummy knots tighten.              29.2.12  

Vapour trails scar the sky

Blue tits dart to and fro,

but

                          both have purpose.                1.3.12

Skeins of mist strata

the dawn landscape of Malvern

                      and - problem solving.             2.3.12

Encounter near Royston

Twice a day he walked

the green lane; between, in danger

                          he cleaned metals.                3.3.12

Angela R.I.P.

Snow on a sunflower,

Disabled, but no self pity,

                     She enhanced life.           4.3.12

The Dictator's journey

Fight

Freedom

- for the people

Win

Power

Enjoy

Me

                   Stay, at all costs.         5.3.12

"No nectar", the bee moans

only barren blooms

              of futile greenhouse stock.   6.3.12

Lent Challenge

This year I have given myself the challenge of writing a haiku everyday and putting the results on my blog. The results I suspect will be varied in quality especially as the weeks pass!
Week 1 

Loved objects, playthings,

distractions, edge my desk and

                            prick memory wells.                  22.2.12

Lent

Take on or give up?

Practice self discipline and

                                touch the desert.                     23.2.12

M5

Light skies silhouette

God's spires, giving permanence

                                To our rushing world                   24.2.12

Malvern Priory

Low down and sheltered

lies the towered ship of souls,

                                        drawing climbers' eyes.                           25.2.12

Anne Knotsford

She's knelt in prayer now

for centuries: is her faith

                                    a true memorial?                        26.2.12

Demure snowdrop heads

droop, crocus smile to the sun

                                 Daffodils fire forth.                        27.2.12

Mixed motives

Lurking in shadows

lie 'not so good' reasons for 

                                 apparent selflessness.                     28.2.12

Fascination

Ornate and twirled lies

a cross on a baseball hat:

Faith or decoration?

Chocolate box beauty,

Sun on sparkling snow

but there's

Shooting in the woods.

Mugs of time

My mugs are laid out

for the cull:

they fight

showing

their place in my past.

Storm

At the bar

A huge wall of waves

builds where tide meets swell; powers

trip over themselves.