To be remembered
For a few sweet words only
Would suffice, I think.
Cold flame
Crisping leaves:
Autumn stars’
Distant roaring.
Time,
Weightless,
Escapes
Into the endless
Night.
Adrift,
We revolve slowly,
Catching sight
Ocassionally
Of where we
Have been….
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Autumn, change, cold, cosmos, dissolution, leaf fall, night, November, Poetry, space, stars, time, Winter | 1 Comment »
—
This flimsy, delicate swish of hour’s numbers
Does nothing to still the tide
Of growing diminishment.
Daylight shrinks still
From either end
Of the dawn
and the dusk.
No use blinking,
No use turning back
or away.
The dark is rolling,
Storming down the hills;
The shadows creeping up the valleys;
The dead stirring, wakening,
Thinking about walking abroad,
Stretching thin and between the worlds…
The slender will turn gaunt,
The well-fed, complain.
In the thin rain, in the slicing blast
The candles will all falter, wan:
Light is a force
That fights the splintering months,
Of which we have too little
And none
To see
in this world
For an age yet….
afternoon skies: maples,wind and Beinn na Caillich, Skye
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged All Hallow's Eve, changing the clocks, dark days, darkness, end of British Summer Time, hallowe'en, hunger, light, maples, nature, photography, Poetry, return of GMT, samhain, Scotland, shadow of death, Skye, sundering, the dead, the influence of bards, thin rain, veil between worlds, wan light, Winter | 2 Comments »
—–
Susurration of forests.
Encyclopedia of fire.
Elongation of shadows.
Collapse of fragilities.
Bejewelment of cobwebs.
Sharpening of edges.
Exhalation of fruits.
Confluence of grey waters.
Concatenation of stormclouds.
Re-examination of necessity.
Emptying into silence.
Separation of birdsong.
Stillness of distance.
Blossoming of starlight.
Hymnal of mists.
Recollection of mortalities.
Apparition of conciliation.
Pibroch of endings.
Acquirement of talons.
A roar of horizons.
A wonder of the Almighty.
A retreat of the insubstantial.
A shattering of prognistication.
A scattering of gold.
Dominion of ravens.
Cold iron pot of despair.
Return of darkness.
Return of returning.
———
(the images are my drawings taken from Iron Age coin art. The upper shows druid/deity/chieftain/warrior holding torc of power. Naked in truth, staring into the world, framed by long braided hair or head cloaked to see into other places…
The lower, a female queen/warrior/goddess singing her power. Head full of animals, voice travelling to the four quarters..
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Autumn, bardic, chant, druidic, kennings, list, Poetry, seaon, song, spell | 1 Comment »
———
Distant forest
Wakes and roars.
Oncoming storm.
——–
Savouring every leaf
Delighting in every edge:
Sunlit autumn breeze.
——–
The only vaccine
For prejudice
Is clarity:
Self
As ephemeral fragment,
A wonder of wonders,
A blossom
Of unique possibility,
Never
To be repeated –
Melody in a dream
Forgotten
On waking.
——–
The universe is not interested in perfection.
Perfection is a dead end,
An eternal equilibrium of boredom,
Of self-congratulation
(the faint whiff of decay).
The religion of bigots,
The philosophy of the small-minded.
Perfection is cessation,
Utter self-containment,
A view too large to begin to encompass,
A beginning before a beginning,
An ending after an ending.
——-
Serene cloud worlds, unconcerned,
Grow and dissipate.
A dance of vapours: light and water
Built high in air.
Foundationless, they thrive.
Rootless sky trees swept on.
It is the
Fragile violence,
Remorseless distance,
That we long for:
An existence without finality,
Careless,
Law-abiding,
Supported,
Free.
—–
In Timeless Time.
In great India
By the slow,
green stream
of the goddess river
In the weight
Of sunlight:
Falling dust.
Time here
Does not pass by,
It does not vanish
Nor fly.
It cannot be wasted.
Time
Accumulates
In golden layers.
Passing
Through a door
Back ten thousand years,
Back to mythic daylight.
Passing
Through another:
Forward ten thousand years
To the gold, smoking, warm night.
Slaked
With time,
Drunk and full up,
The land vibrates:
Chant of cell song,
Golden chant of suns,
Whispered chant of universes.
Settling bliss,
The chant of golden light.
The outer forms:
Poverty, pain, old age, death,
The crumbling
Slow and mighty;
The smell of decay,
Green insidious damp,
Importunate smirk.
All
Barely able
To hold back
The bliss of light
Radiant
Within
The centuries of Time,
One on another,
Piled in corners,
Smiling.
——-
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged autumn almost, clarity, Haiku, India, memories, notes to self, perfection, Poetry, reflections, sunlight, time | 2 Comments »
Eight Haiku for a Year of Days, another posey of haiku for the changing year, now that autumn skies and golden light begin to soften the edges of summer….
*
The dew departed;
But under the willow,
And in the lark’s voice….
*
Cattle grazing
On the sky.
Early morning lake.
*
Watching them swing
This way then that –
Small boats
On the breath of the tide.
*
Hot dust
Between my toes.
The empty fields.
*
Amongst the stubble
Drunken daddy-long-legs.
The silent sky.
*
Come in, come in,
Leaves of autumn,
The wind is cold!
*
Four day’s frost
Crunching underfoot.
Chattering jackdaws.
*
Stubble field.
One withered apple
On the old tree.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged awareness, change, emptiness, Haiku, heat, Poetry, relections, seasons, water, words are pictures | Leave a Comment »
*
Every other noise
In the storm:
The latecomers.
*
Sounding deep my soul:
The wind that moves the dark pine.
How far seems that home!
*
Only me
And the full moon
In this empty boarding house.
*
Nothing remained to be said.
The wind
High in the darkness.
*
The empty clouds
Fill with light.
Slowly, the moon.
*
Dead of night.
In the empty yard
The dripping standpipe
Is silenced.
*
This sleeping world:
River singing to itself
Under the stars.
*
Halo of the moon
Shifts like a dreaming cat.
The dawn wind.
——
This is a selection of haiku from various times, put together with a similarity of mood or feel. To add to it a very recent little piece:
Little cat
Can’t settle:
Moonlight
Rippling through the windows.
—–
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged emptiness, Haiku, moon, nature, night, Poetry, seasons, sequence, solitude, travel, Winter | Leave a Comment »
This is the first time I’ve put in a link to one of my music projects. This one was specifically for some upcoming teaching sessions in Tokyo. They are not finished pieces, more like sketches, but if you give them a listen I hope you like something about them. Musical senryu perhaps…..
https://wodewose.bandcamp.com/album/21-japanese-trees
I spent a while looking through old photos from previous trips to Japan. Here are some of the images:
Jindai is not far from where we stay on the edge of Tokyo. We love the place full of beautiful vistas, shrines, temples and, shops and restaurants…
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ambient, green, japan, media, music, nature, photographs, shrine, spirits, trance states, trees | Leave a Comment »
*
But for the shape
You could well mistake it
For a summer cloud –
The moon this evening.
*
Losing their place
They hesitate
Then start again –
Cicadas counting stars.
*
As if climbing this hill
Had made them mine
– the moon, the city.
*
Sapped of its colour
Beneath the streetlamps:
The flowering cherry.
*
Warm wind all night long
Rushing to heaven,
Kindling the stars, even.
*
In my dream
I named them all –
The birds of dawn.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Haiku, moon, night, Poetry, seasons, time | 2 Comments »
Six Haiku for Timeless Days
——–
Cloud upon cloud
Over the still water
A cuckoo’s voice.
———
The wind
Is the ladder on the horizon
That those tall clouds climb.
———–
The thunderstorm.
In this deserted garden
Only you and I,
Little frog.
———–
Rain running off
A horse’s flanks.
The longest day.
———
Stone, standing
In an empty field.
Waiting, maybe.
———-
My old home
– memories
Where I left them.
———–
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Haiku, nature, Poetry, seasons, senses, time, timeless, words are pictures, year's passing | 2 Comments »
simonhlilly 