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Posts Tagged ‘Haiku’

2nd May: Flow of Time

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 2, 2013| 5 Comments »

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2nd May: Flow of Time

1
Finger of light
Twitches the curtains
Warm cat purs

2
Floating free
It takes a deep breath
Rising sun

3
Without doing,
Everything changes.
Time’s river

4
One or two moments.
Sunrise.
Fast river Time.

5
Watching.
Where is the small leaf of hope
I floated on that river?

6
Stay busy
So as not to notice
The speed of time.

7
No need to watch.
Sheep grazing
Feel the sun rise.

8
Catching breath.
No time to waste
Already gone

9
Accumulating merit
Then letting it go
Doing this, doing that

10
Morning sun
Now too bright.
Turning my gaze:
Waning moon

11
Sun and moon
Floating along
River of time

12
Where are they now?
All those plans floating.
River of time.

13
Caught sight of
One last time:
Small blossom.
Bend of the river

14
Somehow the same:
This thought
This river

15
One moment
Vanishes.
Recorded forever,
Perhaps

16
Deciding
Whether to go up the lane
Or down the lane.
Cat sitting in the sun.

17
To see all the pattern,
Break the pot.
Now the pattern,
Where is the pot?

18
Tune of an ancient chant.
Searching the words
That fit

19
Recording
Ordinary moments
In case
They never happen
Again

20
Thoughts, silence.
The sound of sheep
Munching new grass.

21
Slowly moving uphill
Into sunlight
Sheep nonchalantly drifting by

22
Choosing one,
All the others scatter:
Philosophical thoughts.

23
Should they never come again.
Collecting moments.
Mind fuel.

24
Fishing for words
The hours flow by.
But look what I have caught!

25
Small bright things:
Minnow moments.
I will return them to the stream
In just a moment

26
Haiku:
Not just words
Ripple outwards.

***

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Spring Equinox Morning

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 20, 2013| 7 Comments »

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SPRING EQUINOX MORNING

For this
one instant
A radiant pink
Squeezed and bright
Between hill and cloudbank.
Set round and sure
In circled gold
Dawn sun
Ringing
Time.

On the back of my eye
First flash of morning sun
Dazzles still.

Turning around
First flash of sun
Drives out thought.

Small promise
A moment of radiance
Before clouds close in.

It is the colour
Of heated silver
In a burnished silver sky,
Warm and cold balanced both
Tasting equinox.

A claddagh ring
This dawn:
Heart sun
Held safe
in year’s
Two hands.
Promising
Spring.

Promising spring
Dawn soon waylaid
A party of snowclouds.

A party of snowclouds
Cautious at first
Racing drunk and wild
Across neat fields.

Across neat fields
Light sparkles on dewfall.
Birds chasing each other
Pause a moment.
Spring dance.

Spring dance.
Changing partners
Their feet flattening daffodils,
A whirl of wind and hail.

A whirl of wind and hail
Is the news from the north.
All is silent in the garden.

All is silent in the garden
Dawn sun has vanished
Deep
within the daffodils’ trumpets.

Deep within the daffodils’ trumpets
Is the sound of spring to come
A bright fanfare.

I cannot describe
The colour of the dawn sun,
But perhaps
A blush of fire,
Burnished warm
By the fingertips
Of infinite patience.
Smoothed glow,
Delicate, cherished.

Sun hidden.
Collecting firewood.
The hearth
Still our closest companion.

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Arising

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 4, 2013| 4 Comments »

ARISING

The haiku is often what is not said. The spaces filled by personal recollection. And, of course, catching the moment a mind jolts awake.

This haiku,
Wordless, is
What is not said.
The shaped voids
Becoming occupied
By personal recollection,
A sorting of remains,
Catching the moment
Mind catches sight
Of itself
Mirrored.

These words have no meaning.
And these lines are silent.
No sound, no movement.

In the heat of late summer
The shrine in the mountain forest
Filled with the gossip
Of old men in green shade.

Storm sweepings
(debris of the sway of the world)
Sugi smoke rises and crackles.

In its own dark hall
The taiko drum plays with silence.
Unstruck, its taught skin
Ripples out roundness
Beyond sound.

Ripples across Sewa Lake,
Waves of branches in the wood,
The oncoming typhoon.

The cicadas ignore,
The ants map
The grey weathered boards
Of the audience chamber.

The carefully robed priest,
Each toe grasping the steps,
Opens the door between worlds
With invitation and gesture.

A slow wheeling of kites.

This sign is not in use.

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A Poet’s Epitaph

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 6, 2012| 1 Comment »

 

 

To be remembered

 

For a few sweet words only

 

Would suffice, I think.

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Rescued Words of Late Summer

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 10, 2012| 2 Comments »

———

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.

——-

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Eight Haiku for a Year of Days

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

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.

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Eight Haiku for Shrouded Night

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 2, 2012| 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.

—–

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Six Haiku For Gentle Night

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 30, 2012| 2 Comments »

*

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.

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Six Haiku For Timeless Days

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 29, 2012| 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.

———–

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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Summer path

—-

Clouds bloom , air cools.
One drop, then two.
Sudden scent of roses

—–

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