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WALKING INTO SUNRISE - haiku 3 – 5
AN EXPERIMENT WITH LIGHT
The Poet 6
The Light of Dawn
6
Mr Sun 6
Fly 6
Strimulator
6
Chill 7
A Tale of Bad Intent 7
Villanelle: Dietary Warning 8
Two Tribes 8
Star Gazer 9
Weed 9
Teeth 10
Fire Inside 10
This Road 10
Tesco 11
Language! 11
Putin 11
Bedtime Story 11
Scab 11
Into Light 11
Domestic Nightmare 12
Country Station 13
Cross 14
I 14
My Father’s Soup 15
Deaf and Dumb 15
May 15
Madeira Wine 15
Just to be 16
Evolution of Light 17
Girl on the Train 17
Landscape 17
Storm 18
Walking into Sunrise
stepping
out quietly
cold
air on my skin
makes
me gasp
5
k’s before breakfast
shaking
off the night ready
to
meet the new day
through
the cool pre-dawn
cycling
furiously to work
she’s
late again
from
his bed in the clouds
sun
yawns ponders whether to rise
then
disappears
the
risen sun
his
glow on my skin and the
sound
of my footsteps
such
blue in the sky
sparkling
cars slumber on
as
I pass by
cold
air refreshes
tightens
my skin as I
admire
the mayflower
the
light growing stronger
so
many birds are calling
I
don’t know their names
mayflower
hedge
startled
by the frost
glitters
in the sun
looking
for inspiration
fingers
of liquid sunshine
sparkle
the frost
bright the mayside lane
trimmed by gilded beech-mast sheaths
as hardened boots tramp by
sun
climbs higher
the
crisp grass is softening
blackbird
sings me home
returned
from my walk
still
wearing my hat indoors
ready
for the day
small
puffs of inspiration
drift
across my sky
just
waiting to be seen
closing
my eyes I
see
you before me smiling
and
know you are still here
young excited eyes
bursting with your surprise -
something
beginning with ‘choc’
the
growing light of day
promise
of fine summers
burning
in my chest
rattling ghost town
emerging from the dust cloud
of the slamming wind
baobab tree
set on fire by the sinking sun
extinguished by the night
strip-light
flickering:
to
illuminate the room
or
give up entirely?
your diamond portrait
subdued in the pre-dawn light
still consoles me
the river runs quiet
reflecting the city lights
carrying all our dreams
look – red moon rising
setting sun a kaleidoscope
in the western sky
rising with the sun
glowing colours shattering
a fragile eastern sky
alone in my attic
painting with my heart
slow jazz fills the air
blank screen stares back
what ideas will emerge
apart from this one!
swifts flocking
for their African odyssey
cheating the seasons
evening sun
pouring blood into the bay
weakens and dies
stories told by firesides
rise like smoke and drift across
skies of listening stars
sun rising over
flotillas of dandelions
clock flowers reminding me
An Experiment with Light
THE POET
A
wizard of words
conjuror
of images
the
ability to seed a vacuum
to
bring nothingness into being.
THE LIGHT
OF DAWN
From
the first glories of dawn
spreading
far and wide a silver table cloth
and
from out of the myths of night’s dark larder
light
woven through a landscape
like
the return of consciousness
to
a sleeping child.
MISTER
SUN
Mister Sun
burns a hole in my head
to try to
read my thoughts -
says if I
really loved him
I’d be
wearing shorts.
FLY
The fly has climbed
to the edge of space with me
to admire the view
STRIMULATOR
A weekend of labour I truly detest –
can’t imagine anything grimmer
pacing my garden in a dingy vest –
me, the ejit with the strimmer.
CHILL
The chill that deepens
with each sinking of the year
won’t penetrate my bones
won’t push out my morning light
won’t deaden the delicate load of day.
But I know that Time will have its way
though compensate with fires bright
joyful voices on a starry night
when frost cracks and wind moans
and the sparkling heavens disappear
then the chill that deepens
deepens fear.
ICEBERG
iceberg drifting
an ever-changing sculpture
until it dies
A TALE OF BAD
INTENT
Even now I can’t think why –
I never really knew the guy.
Met by the fire the night before,
offered him to share my floor
Which he seemed grateful to accept
so wrapped up in his sack he slept
as I scrambled into mine
I heard him snoring off his wine.
Then I woke in early misty hours
to what I thought a heavy shower
until it dawned – quite disbelieving –
my friend was of himself relieving.
On his knees, his shoulders bent
all over the ground-sheet of my tent.
Eventually the cascade slows
but soon in my direction flows.
My sleeping bag had a rubber base
but with water lapping near my face
my friend once more returns to sleep
while the margins of his puddle creep.
Sitting up I searched my sack
for the army knife I knew I’d packed.
Jabbing holes in the ground I knew
the noxious fluid would drain right through.
to let it out I had to try
and hope by morning all was dry.
I got up early to light a fire
to boil some tea, to quell my ire
and when he rose about midday,
no eye contact – what words to say;
he just packed and left and never spoke.
I thought, which of us the weirder bloke.
VILLANELLE:
DIETARY WARNING
Rage against the broadening of your hips
That betrays your cardio-vascular lies
Simply shut your eyes and close your lips.
Don’t tell me it was just a momentous blip,
Sure to be lows as well as highs,
Rage against the broadening of your hips.
Plateful of salad to replace those greasy chips
And other grub we ought to demonize
Simply shut your eyes and close your lips.
It’s been to long now time to get to grips,
Bin the buns, the steak and kidney pies;
Recall the shame when your skirt voluntarily unzips.
Recall as well the girl you once were who skips
And runs and jumps and wins the prize
For best somersaults and backward flips
And if your newfound resolution dips –
So hard the track of compromise,
At least turn away those Friday chippy trips,
Rage against the broadening of your hips
Simply shut your eyes and firmly zip your lips.
TWO TRIBES
Two tribes fight by night and day –
they’re not sure why – always been that way,
vying to score, to have their say
but there’s a hole in the fence
where their children play.
STAR GAZER
There’s a sky full of stars
Revolving round my head
That watched us fall apart.
Now I’m pleading with my eyes
For the sun no more to rise
Till you’re home again
In my heart.
WEED
Never seen this packet in my life –
Ask me mum, ask me mate, ask me wife
Reckon someone broke in and put it there
Stuffed it down the lining of the chair – I swear
Yeah, someone’s really got it in for me –
Off ‘is ‘ead on coke or an act of jealousy;
Wants revenge for what he thinks I’ve done, yeah
But I’ve an alibi see – out shoppin’ wiv me mum
‘cause I just got these wheels, right – got ‘em from a
mate,
Get me quick around the estate – just great, yeah
For nipping wiv yer mum down to Tesco –
Just call ‘er up, say goin’ to the shops – lets go!
Nah, them’s not my prints, see – never seen ‘em in me
life –
Must’ve been planted there just to cause me strife, yeah
An’ I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout to pot plants either;
So I’m runnin’ up ‘uge energy bills – who cares,
I can declare meself bankrupt and live off the state
I got my life sorted, all eyes crossed and teas dotted,
mate.
So, unless there’s a vowel in the month I don’t do weed –
But I can get you some, officer, if you’re feelin’ the
need.
TEETH
Just come back from a visit to the dentist-
Didn’t realise I’d be seeing an apprentice;
Victim of a practice they ought to abolish:
Took out all my teeth for a scale and polish.
FIRE INSIDE
The fire inside
gift from the beginning of time
to where it must return
THIS ROAD
Stay on this road, young man
Though deathly- cratered, crumbling and scoured
Where blood red dust billows and buffoons
Over the rooftops of courts and palaces
To the crawling trawling traffic or
Dancing with death each careering mile and moment
All along each sprawling cracked-up mile
Backed-up the belching fleets of busses
Dusted with the latest pilgrims and proselytes
Deliverers of an exit strategy,
Wayside traders of meagre means and thinner pickings
The bristled and frenzied thugging and twerking
For some gold-plated politician
Licensed bribery caught and rolled
Into another ditch – an accident
Pronged with meat for lawyers
And the charlatan police.
For new road gangs are coming,
Slow boats from China, to dredge the gutters where
Through the ages prostitutes have stood, legs closed
And hope has risen and fallen with each salty tide.
And so the road runs,
Falling behind the years and with each jolt,
Each axle snapped, each shattered box of gears
The landscape bleeds its richest soil
All the way to the city
In Jesus’ name.
TESCO
Shopping carts are missing from outside Tesco.
There’s one in the cut but where’d the rest go?
LANGUAGE!
Once went on a hike with Ms Street-Porter;
Talked non-stop using words she didn’t oughta!
PUTIN
Had a TV interview with comrade Putin
Constantly afraid he’d put the boot in!
BEDTIME STORY
Mum read me stories by Enid Blyton
that so scared me to death I slept with the light on.
SCAB
Just knocked a scab off my elbow
Blood dripping all down my arm;
I’ll use ‘Wash and Go’ to help stem the flow –
And it can’t do my arms hairs no harm!
INTO LIGHT
My heart fills with light,
My problems dissolving, it seems;
Feels like I’m awakening
In someone else’s dream.
DOMESTIC NIGHTMARE
We settled in some years ago –
Mortgage relatively cheap,
But that soon lost its rosy glow;
We’d bought a crumbling heap.
I knew the pipes needed lagging
And the boiler a quilted jacket
And the garden needed flagging
And the lot would cost a packet.
Yes, the garden required attention
I would have tackled it myself
But with all the best intentions,
Got to think of my
health.
The winter gales had done their worst,
Slates blown off the roof.
Rain got in and the ceiling burst
And the Insurance want more proof
It wasn’t caused by sheer neglect
Or an act of sabotage;
They say such claims sometimes reflect
That fraudsters are at large.
The toilet won’t flush properly
Its contents down the drain;
It dribbles quite improperly
And leaves a nasty stain.
The plumber says he’ll come next week –
Dishwasher’s on the blink
And the washing machine has sprung a leak
Guess I’ll have to use the sink.
The grill’s kaput and the oven’s too
So its cooking on the hob
And then what do I go and do
But snap off the blasted knob.
When I press the light switch
It spits an alarming spark;
I use a knife to fix it
Now the house is completely dark.
And as for the car – don’t mention the car
Its rattles, bangs and shakes;
It never gets us very far
Before another component breaks.
The broadband’s playing up again –
No catch up on the telly;
If the TV man’s not here by twelve
I’m giving it some welly.
Yes, I’m waiting for the TV man
To perform his hocus pocus
To fix the problem –I hope he can
Before it’s time for Football Focus.
Everything’s going wrong for us –
Not sure what to do.
Till someone sorts this mess and fuss
We’re coming to live with you.
Let loose with time
Escapee from the acid bombs
Achieves his nirvana
COUNTRY STATION
Disturbing the dozing day
He taps the milk churns with his stick:
‘Tang Tang!’ – to discover they’re still empty;
The train has already gone for today, she says;
Nothing to marvel at, no slight tremble of the heart
At its thunderous rumble as it
Chuffs and hisses to a halt.
No emerging dads like she described,
Suited, briefcased, ‘Echoed’
Home for their tea
A veil across the table
Concealing a peck on the cheek
A frolic with the kids.... so I’m told.
Perhaps his nan just made it up
After all nothing has stopped here in a hundred years-
You can tell by the silver birch where tracks should be
And we as always the only visitors,
The signal box as usual has nothing to say.
Still we come down on cool weekends
And in summer beneath the drifting grass
And lark-filled sky I sit on a bench and wait
And sigh a bit as if it was late.
She always gets grit in the corner of her eye
Though as a grown-up she must know
As well as I it is well past the hour -
No train has passed this way in a hundred years
And will not come today.
Any milk in the churns will be well sour!
CROSS
The
son
of
God
Is waiting for a response from me
My frozen eyes beginning now
to see
The
True
And
Total
Love
That
Sets
Me
Free
And
Lifts
My
Soul
I
instinctively
we
try
to
do
the
best
we
can
to
believe in
ourselves
MY FATHER’S SOUP
Loup de loup he called it –
Or should that be loop de loop –
Never questioned it till now,
Not even when he poured his time
Into the gloup – an everlasting pot,
It seemed to chase the cold and damp,
Replenished almost daily to
Always hit the spot
Frustrations boiling over, spirits inclined to drop,
His cauldron on the go
‘Enough to feed the troops’ my grandma used to say
With warnings not to snoop
Or reveal the secret ingredients of his everlasting soup.
DEAF AND DUMB
This kind lady who has no voice
she can’t hear me,
will never rejoice
at my words of love,
my first song
and she can never tell me,
though I’ve known it all along,
that our hearts beat together
and our hearts beat strong.
MADEIRA WINE
uplift of mountain air
voice of the roaring wave
sucking pebbles from the shore
rolling rolling to
the whomp of the wave
to its dying dribble
probed by a roaring sea
pounding out the geo
making the rock tremble
moonlit waves
eternal swash and scrawl
scrubbing up he cobbles
wind quiffs the splunging wave
till it bumbles and bibbles
and swills to nothingness
below the tended terraces
deep in the valley a bell
tolls the passing day
from out of fire
this giving soil a
patchwork of sustenance
still fresh morning
a sunlit mountain trail
oh! the mimosas
the glisk of silent rills
plays on the levada
between blobs of sunlight
chaffinch flits among
the boughs of heather so
delighted we have come
on the high plateau
turbines mixing the air
sweep away the cloud
born of liquid fire
the island shines around us
a jewel in the sea
JUST TO BE
Some radiant beauty
intellect refined
skills and talents well defined
urged to be,
to grow new shoots
in fresh furrows
to sink new roots and
bind with our soil,
or skip and play,
heart and soul unfolding free
fill your boots -
just to be me.
EVOLUTION OF LIGHT
Light has been evolving
Every day since first the Earth turned
And gave birth to the first cell of life,
The almost imperceptible shift of colour
Weeping into the blackness
Rising out of the eastern sea
Pouring across the sky
Dissolving the night
Revealing all the colours of creation
GIRL ON THE TRAIN
Made my day seeing you.
Perhaps it was imagination but
I think we exchanged smiles –
too shy to chat – sounds silly.
Girl who made me miss a breath
The miles passing too soon
When you got off at Piccadilly
I wished I’d had reason to get off there too.
I went to sit where you sat
and as I gazed up at the moon
hoped that tomorrow
I’d ask for my breath back please
So I could talk to you.
LANDSCAPE
Along the dark cloistered track
the larch and pine rise up
until in high tingling air
bright mountains reclaim their landscape.
STORM
After such a storm
the motion of each dripping leaf
inspires the gentlest drift of air
to support a canopy of wonder.
Beneath the soft duvet of cloud
between drifts of rain
the lake spirit comes and goes
adjusting her veil.
And after such a sky
where dots of brilliance
patterned in splendour
point out fragments of the universe.
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