almost new year

almost new year the hangman's erection falls limp

the muckish

propososal for a poetry platform/mound with pit of words
the piece is envisaged as being in a school's grounds

paul conneally 2006

do not inhale

for a better world play golf on the moon

paul conneally

2006

14 Nights in Carnac

14 Nights in Carnac

mixed media - book and oak leaves

14 Nights in Carnac - a piece made by UK artist Paul Conneally (Little Onion) in July 2006. The artist spent 14 nights in Carnac famous for its megoliths its standing stones. He lived and slept below two oak trees. Each night reading sections of Haruki Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicle plucking an oak leaf from the trees and placing it inside the book as a bookmark.

The finished piece is the book with the leaves pressed inside it.

winter fair

winter fair
a man picks candyfloss
from his beard

Little Onion

Special!

Work made as a video installation for the City of London Festival 2006 by Paul Conneally with pupils from a school in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, UK.

Interview with Susumu Takiguchi and D.W. Bender

Little Onion's interview with Debra Woolard bender and Susumu Takiguchi Chair of World Haiku Club:


powered by ODEO

Cadbury College Renga

Here's a short video made by artist Nikki Pugh during the Cadbury College Renga. Master Poet for the piece is Paul Conneally (Little Onion) working with artists Gavin Wade and Alec Finlay on the '3 Estates Renga - 100 verses for 3 Estates' - music was everywhere - the video is silent but you'll hear the music if you watch carefully and catch the beat... it takes a little while to load so excuse the wait and then check out Little Onion's cool dance moves....

Lady Manners School (more)

LADY MANNERS SCHOOL, BAKEWELL, UK


LO

Digital Haiku

Some time ago I was commisioned by The Rural Media Company to work on what we called the 'Digital Haiku Project'. It was partly funded by the Sasakawa Foundation and North Shropshire Education Action Zone. I find it's now out and available as a video:

The Rural Media Company undertake some really exciting and worthwhile projects - you can access them from their website which you'll get to if you click the picture above.

Hawkesley Square Renga

Just got back from Carnac and the standing stones.

Wonderful.

Found Nikki Pugh's photographs of the Hawkesley Square Renga - part of the 100 verses for Three Estates projects that i'm working as master poet on for Gavin Wade and Alec Finlay

Hidden Worlds Happening

i felt a real sense of happiness during the Hidden Worlds happening

to be part of such an event was wonderful

so many open hearted artist working together and alongside each other

in this allotment garden space

here are some pictures

the above two pictures are of Keith Hoffman-Dorn's ice and metal installation

here is Lee's garden shed camera with a picture taken during the event by the shed on the shed

above is Alec Finlay's birdbox piece

one of Little Onion's wordsearch portraits

one of 11 lasertransferred onto the paving stones

this one is of Sue Crabtree

Lady Manners School Bakewell UK

Work made by young people (age 12/13) with Little Onion in Bakewell UK

Hidden Worlds

Here's the flyer for Hidden Worlds and that's Little Onion in amongst the poppies.

Where The Bee Sucks

made some pieces including this video

where the bee sucks
click above to view or download higher quality

ninety years
on from the somme
a bee leaving a poppy

the poppies are here and now
people and birdsong in the garden too
the song takes us somewhere else
time and place

joe scouting out birds for the birdbox

giving up some time
to engage with the garden
has proved really useful

someone's three year old collects pebbles

i have made two new poem forrms
one involving sliding tiles
like those little plastic games
you get in lucky bags

a woman tells me her shed is a camera

and one that i'm really excited about
using wordsearches to map individuals or groups
associations feelings memories
around places people objects
in this case allotments

the sound of rain on a sheet of metal

each wordsearch
is unique to that individual or group
that provides the words

tea made on a calor gaz stove

i've asked people and groups on the allotments to give me ten words

here is dave's:


dave's an allotment holder
tells me everyone else
on the allotments
is miserable

so did several others
once in their own space
for many that's heaven

i think they are probably
less miserable than dave says
and he says it with pride
in a broad d h lawrence
nottingham accent

paul conneally

'In Search of Oldton' Radio Play

BBC Radio 4 includes 'In Search of Oldton' radio play in major 'Memory' season

Just had this in from Tim Wright - I really enjoyed being part of this project and also contributing to the radio play - if you listen carefully you will hear me in the broadcast reading a 'memory'...

Dear All

I'm pleased to announce that the radio play 'In Search of Oldton', inspired by the web site In Search of Oldton, has a confirmed broadcast date on Radio 4 of 2.15pm, Monday 24th July 2006.

It's being featured as part of a major BBC season abount memory - see RADIO 4 MEMORY - and should also be available online for seven days after broadcast. I hope you enjoy it.

I continue to accept further contributions to the site, and packs of playing cards are still for sale!

Thanks to everyone who has supported this project.

best

Tim Wright
http://www.oldton.com .

so many nights
spent praying to mary
a cherry stone

Little Onion

Haiga Online Issue 7

The new edition of Haiga Online is up - worth checking out as usual.

Haiga Online

haiga shown is from 'Stripped' a series of haiga by paul conneally

wisteria coils
all the way up the down pipe
a house mouse

Little Onion

Three Estates Renga

This Saturday sees the first renga session of the Three Estates Renga - one hundred verses for three estates. The piece is conceived by artists Alec Finlay and Gavin Wade and forms part of Gavin's ongoing work 'Strategic Questions'.

Paul Conneally (Little Onion) will be Master Poet for the piece which will involve 6 renga sessions in the community with the community of the Kings Norton 'Three Estates'. The sessions will take place across the year across the seasons. The renga will create a word map of the estates and is in response to Buckminster Fuller's strategic question 'What is animate?'

Here's Gavin in the Three Estates Marquee which he set up and had a practice workshop in last Saturday - the day of England's first match in the 2006 World Cup Finals...

The first renga will be in The Fold, Pool Farm Estate, Kings Norton, Birmingham, UK, Saturday the 17th of June 2006.

an early morning
of back pain and vomit
white climbing roses

Little Onion

West Cornforth Primary School

dark morning sky a man is playing a flute

the haiku drainpipe

made by children of West Cornforth Primary School

with Little Onion May 2006

The White Moon

Here are some poems from one of the sessions I ran at Elmfield Primary a couple of weeks ago. I did several sessons including, reception/yr1/yr2, year 3/4s and Yr5/6 - every child in the school!


Diifferent workshops for each group.


The Reception class made this during the day I was there after the workshop with me -haiku and origami jumping frogs:

--------------------------

Haiku Poems by children in Year 5/6 at Elmfield Primary School, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

This class had a story-telling session from Little Onion all about the Master Poet Basho and were also introduced by Little Onion to Ukiyo-e - Japanese woodblock prints before going on to write their own haiku in response to prints. The children learnt about the 5/7/5 syllable structure that haiku in Japanese follow and then went beyond this to study the western haiku form that very rarely follows such a pattern. It would be interesting to see what pictures other children or adults might make in response to these very imagistic poems.


at dawn
people are setting off
to another place

Sean O`Hare


a lady is reading
a letter from her boy friend
long twisted branches

Wenzday Chappell


heavy wind
people are struggling
to get home

Eden Newby


bare trees
walking from the shops
all the way home again

Adam Sheehan


three ladies
with no shoes
the blue night

Rhiann


distant mountains
as we row through the water
fish jump to meet us

Lauryn Bennett.


on the cliff
over the waters
distant trees

Jordan Hymers

water splashing
wave forming
in the river

Jake Ward

in the jungle,
animals are fighting,
cats killing


Bethany Jade Carlyle


everyone in the house
is looking around
I carry rich people.


Tiffany Young

fishers in canoes
a train passes by
puffing out smoke

Craig Burke


the white moon
in the blue sky
long trees

Courtney Cant Plaskett


candle light
I imagine skeletons
in the rain

Channon Nixon

the parade
fills me with joy
beautiful kimonos

Cameron Woodcock



the feel of fear
a man has just killed someone
with a sword


Callum Francis


people are walking
through the bitter snow
birds fly

Callum Robb


a train driving past
a big mountain
it is day time

Chloe Danielle Smith-Race

-----

This May a month of wet coldness. More so than I can ever remember. The tree peony's huge blooms dashed and brown. Meanwhile water authorities impose drought orders.



HAIKU HIKE MAIN PAGE

CROSSOVER UK

On The Road

Been out and about.

Workshops, readings, meeting up with other artists, poets and the like.

Here's a few from Kirk Merrington, County Durham, UK.

Eight and nine year olds:


sailing a ship
on the pacific ocean
hard work

Tabitha West

men working
in the street
red hot

Jessica

the moon's out

mammy's buying something

at a stall

Jordan

Haiku Hike - Tomomi Iguchi

Here's some information about Tomomi who I'm happy to be involved with on her current Crossover 2006 work 'Renewabilty' that includes the Haiku Hike project over London's Olympic Development site. As well as the walks across the London Olympic sites we encourage people around the world to walk and share haiku, thoughts, feelings with us via text, video, images - you can find out where to send these by looking at:

Haiku Hike (World Walks)

Here's Tomomi:





Tomomi Iguchi
Director, Crossover uk.Japan / England Tomomi Iguchi, a Japanese artist, curator and director of Crossover UK based in London, to promote greater understanding and tolerance between different cultures by developing cross-cultural events and networking initiatives within the creative sectors. She organized 'Crossovers for Japan 2001' in UK that was widely acclaimed by participants and founders alike. The concept behind these projects is based on the directors' own personal cultural experiences around aspects of nature and culture within the urban environment. As a Japanese artist living in the UK, Tomomi is interested in contrasting eastern and western cultural attitudes towards nature and the environment. Crossover uk has explored this territory through exhibitions and conferences in both the UK and Japan and would like to continue to develop this consideration of the relationship between nature, culture and environment.

Crossover UK

world cup fever
the flag of st. george
from every other window

location: Newton Ayclclffe, County Durham, UK

summer sneeze i trap my finger in the shop's fridge door

location: Billy Row, County Durham, May 2006

Haiku Hike

Here's news of a project taking place over this Summer:

HAIKU HIKE

Maybe some of you would like to share a walk - where you walked a haiku or two and any feelings the environment evoked etc - maybe even haibun... and pictures... or videos from you mobile phones... any kind of walk... not just in countryside... urban... anywhere...

Send your walks to me at:
little.onion@ntlworld.com

put haiku hike in the subject line... i'll get them to Tomomi.

LO

nettled legs
a linnet is singing
in the blackthorn

Little Onion

miscarriage a dandelion seed stuck to her cheek

Little Onion

bikini line
every seventh wave
a bit smaller

Little Onion

To Mile End And A Bit Further

I'm preparing for workshops in London for the City of London Festival. Will be doing two days at a Primary School in Docklands - right next to the Thames. Really looking forward to it. Will also be meeting up with Tomomi Iguchi an artist who runs Crossovers UK - I really admire the work that she has brought together over the last few years exploring environmental issues via multidisciplinary art projects. Tomomi is based in Tower Hamlets but has ininitiated projects the world over especially linking Japan and UK artists. Her current project in preparation includes work in Mile End Park Art Pavillion and on the proposed London Olympic Development Site.

bags packed
a four-leafed clover
by the front door

Little Onion

gear shift
a patchwork of rape
and new sown barley

Little Onion

a brass band
leads the workers' walk
may flowers

Little Onion

pulling weeds
the sound of a man
blowing his nose

Little Onion

Rosemary Flowers

a child shouts
'coming ready or not'
rosemary flowers

Paul Conneally

MR HAIKU at RAMM Feburay 2006

Spent today collating work done by children and their families in workshop with me as MR HAIKU at Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum back in Febuary. That day was enlivened even further by the presence in addition to MR HAIKU of poet Alan Summers. The workshops were geared up to encourage new ways of interpretation of artefacts in a very traditional museum gallery in this case the stuffed animal gallery - via poetry.... I'll share back some here at a future date -in the meantime here's a couple:

a barn owl glides
through the starlit sky
grasping claws

Steffanie Griffiths

beautiful tiger
people are talking about
poetry

Poppy

------

last home match
of the season
a mexican wave


Little Onion

A Trip to Calke Abbey

Easter Monday and a trip to Calke Abbey. Since my father-in-law's stroke the house itself is impossible for us to visit and so we make for the walled gardens. Noel gets a lift on what appears to be a converted golf buggy driven by a National Trust volunteer. We walk.

Spring has been cold and all growth is a good two weeks or so behind what we've come to expect. A few plants, gooseberry and red currants, are coming into leaf but most of the beds are freshly tilled and bare.

the auricula theatre
staged with pansies
dad's wheelchair

Little Onion

we walk hand in hand
my jacket on her shoulders
through the day's last light
lobster pots and sweet whitebait
the keepers of cormorants

Little Onion

a single siskin
at the feeding station
blue violas

Little Onion

easter saturday
the year's first mowings
in a plastic bag

Little Onion

First Dandelion

first dandelion
my son beats me
at swingball

Little Onion

Showery Day

showery day

girls run for the shelter

of Top Shop

.

Little Onion

.

The picture is "Three Girls in the rain" by Kuniyoshi an Ukiyo-e woodblock print.

here's a link to a piece that made me think of the print again

A Rockery Wren

a rockery wren
stakes out her territory
blue aubrietia

Little Onion

Midnight's Kiss

midnight's kiss
the slow up and down
of my son's chest

Little Onion

Palm Sunday

palm sunday
a scattering of hailstones
in the wheelbarrow

Little Onion

A Broken Bottle

a broken bottle
in the playground
gorse flowers

Little Onion

My Inner-self

my inner-self
repeats on me
pepperami

Little Onion

Daffodil Wind

a daffodil wind
just one magpie
in the flat field

Little Onion

Stopped

stopped in my tracks
by a small bird's singing
this spring breeze

Little Onion

Spring Melt

Down by the disused station starts a trail. We follow the river our warm clothes buttoned up against the cold. Long fleeced sheep huddled together by a dry stone wall. It's early March and there are still small patches of snow here and there along the way.

spring melt
a pair of dippers skim
the sound of water

Little Onion

Haiku Mike has a picture taken so many miles away from where this is written about but which brought me straight back to it when i saw it. You can see it here Falls - there are some wonderful photographs at Mike's site.

Almost Easter

almost easter
the car salesman tells me
to lighten up

Little Onion

Pink Tulip Petals

pink tulip petals
strewn across the hearth rug
his mother's black eye

Little Onion

Underground

underground journey

the closeness of strangers
on my breath

Paul Conneally

Shower After Shower

shower after shower
a crow with a large stick
crosses the rainbow

Little Onion

Forty Springs

I climb the step ladder into the loft dropping on the way up one of my Homer Simpson carpet slippers that the kids bought me last year. The struggle to find the light switch. As usual I marvel aloud at the contents making a mental note to finally sort things out catalogue my huge record collection check if the old reel-to-reel tape machine still works and to put some more floor boards down. Here's the box. I won't take a peek until we're down again in fact not until we're downstairs in the kitchen.

forty springs
my son and I watch
the tortoise blink

Little Onion

March Hares

march hares
our football gets stuck
in a gorse bush

Little Onion

Back Pain

6 AM - I hobble to the toilet then downstairs for coffee, cereal and exactly half an hour of morning TV. A discussion on the merits of synthetic phonics.

spring equinox
the sound of light hail
against the bay window
.
Little Onion

Sometimes

warm sunny days

a child's red spade

with a wooden handle

.

down the beach

comes a line of donkeys

their braying

a weather beaten man

in a sweat stained trilby

.

teenage tantrum

sometimes it's hard to tell

snowflake from blossom

.

Little Onion

The original was:

I remember a warm sunny day in Cleethorpes. A child's red spade with a wooden handle. Down the beach comes a line of donkeys led by a weather beaten man in an old trilby. Their braying startles an old woman from her dreams.

teenage tantrum
sometimes it's hard to tell
snowflake from blossom
.
Little Onion

Some Links:
Cleethorpes .. Beach Donkeys

I Like To Say "Peace"

I like to say

"peace" now and then

as how space might be

between stumbling

and rising up again

.

Cecilia

.

Cecilia, a person I've never corresponded with before, sent me this poem today. At first in a slightly different form but now in tanka form.

It is one of the joys of the 'blogging' world that new connections between people, between works and across cultures naturally arise. Cecilia and I share with you some of our short correspondance about the above poem and how it became tanka with this post.

Along with her poem Cecilia sent me a link to her space: clearcandy daily. I enjoyed the entries here very much - go take a look!

.

Little Onion

-------------------------

Dear Cecilia,

Thank you for sharing your poem with me:

I like to say "peace" now and then
as how space might be between,
stumbling and rising up again.

I looked at some of your haiku on your blog and they are more haiku like than the above poem (which i like). For me this poem is more tanka-like than haiku and i'd suggest a reaarangement of the line breaks perhaps to see what it looks like as tanka:

I like to say
"peace" now and then
as how space might be
between stumbling
and rising up again

and now i'm reading again and finding the room for a cut a kireji after line 2 perhaps let me see...

I like to say
"peace" now and then
the space
between stumbling
and rising up again

What do you think of the two tanka-like versions? Is one better than the other - or maybe you hate both :-)

A more haiku-like or senryu-like version might be:

I like to say "peace"
the space between stumbling
and rising up again

But maybe it loses something in the shortening

I hope that you don't mind my exploring your verse in this way.

I like to say "peace" now and then too,

"Peace"

Little Onion

Dear Little Onion :),

I appreciate your reply very much. Let me tell you that I have no background or any training with poetry/haiku writing. So your replycomes as a HUGE welcome to me. I would like to learnmore and objective criticism like you did would certainly veer me into the right steps towards presenting good forms of writings. I like the (first) tanka version of the update youmade on my poem. The shortened, second version, does lose part of the meaning.

Thank you once again.

Honored,

Cecilia

All Piercings Considered

Off to London just for the day. We wander through stalls set up inside old buildings, streets and passageways. I notice our fellow gazers, shoppers, walkers appear to be mainly Italian and Japanese in search of that special souvenir, some glimpse of authenticity, a mohicaned youth wearing a sandwich board, all piercings considered.

It starts to snow.

camden market
too many buddhas
to contemplate
.
Little Onion

Some Links:
Camden Lock .. Piercing in Camden .. Cyber Dog .. Stables Market

Down by the Black Brook

Down by the Black Brook we find signs of spring. New shoots on the hawthorn but not yet any blossom. A few minnows in amongst the coke cans. And here in the shelter of a willow, is it some child's den?

a damp mattress
scattered with needles
the coot's legs
.

Little Onion

Some Links:
The Chemical House .. Coot

S (p) (c) Am

on average i get one a day

a new proposition

to be a business associate

of some overthrown politician's wife

neice daugter son

.

spring rain

the sound of junk mail

in the letterbox

.

Little Onion

Click below for Heavy Industries take on it

HELLO

Under The Wave

Under The Wave is a sculptural piece piece originally proposed for making and installation in the Irish seaside town of Bundoran. The work proposed is participatory in its making, the artist working with the area's master-craftemen surfboard shapers and the community to create three surfboards featuring haiku written in workshop by members of the local community - surfers, grandmothers, holidaymakers, housewives, priests, schoolchildren...

The piece involves a documented (filmed etc.) riding of the boards by local surfers at a community event before they are finally wall mounted - their final resting place - although there would be nothing to stop the boards being taken down and ridden again at some point in the future.

Although originally proposed for Bundoran (in the end not commisioned) the piece or a similar piece could be undertaken anywhere where a local community is connected with surfing. It aims to celebrate and explore not only the surfing and the connections across the wider community but also raise attention to the craft skills, the artistry of the surfboard shapers - often missed whilst local painters and potters become clebrated as THE local craftspeople, local artists, their wares littering gallery sections of souvenir shops.

mice made
of foreign shells
Greetings from St.Ives
.
Little Onion

Lent

Pancake Day came followed by Ash Wednesday and I think to stop drinking or at least cut down but of course someone calls around and brings a bottle and Lent lasts just one day.

.

Little Onion

Spring Fixture

spring fixture

a man with 'made in england'

across his forehead

.

Little Onion

No Fish But A Feather

spring tide

no fish but a feather

and a condom

.

Little Onion

This photograph was taken from the new footbridge across the River Tyne between Necastle and Gateshead. The building in the river is BALTIC.

Small Things

I realise that I've been shouting too much too often at the children mainly but sometimes my wife too and always about things that aren't really that important. Small things.

a flock of goldfinch
in amongst the gorse flowers
bed linen
.
Little Onion

Hankies, Bells and Big Sticks

Some do venture out on Christmas morning but it's with the coming of spring that they start to appear in town squares, pub gardens, on village greens and anywhere vaguely associated with folklore, celtic crosses, local landmarks.

I used to laugh at them, avoid them even, but not now, though I rarely search them out. Their hankies, bells and big sticks.

with new buds

and blooms

the morris men

.

Little Onion

On Waking

a night of clenched teeth and vivid dreams

even before dawn
the twitering of song birds
and her tangled hair

.

Little Onion

Geese Watch

evening run
my stride lengthens
with the day

.

The days are getting longer as the Sun visibly does its thing with the Earth. What a relationship they have moving a little closer then away again and all life tuned in to their every movement. Birds the world over prepare to fly. Some North some South.

geese watch

our binoculars

search the sky

.

Paul Conneally

OLD POND

Well still some time until the local ponds and gardens become alive with frogs and toads.

The above haiku is Basho's famous 'Old Pond' stanza:

old pond

a frog leaps in

water's sound

I'm hoping that everyone takes Basho's lead and jumps right into the haikai pond and makes some waves some noise but not so much that the old world sounds, traditions and processes are drowned out or swamped rather built on, moved on from.

spring hike

we follow an old map

to new places

.

Little Onion

...

Skin After Skin

Little Onion - that's what I've become - peeling back one skin to reveal another.

Travelling the roads reading and writing what some call poems some small thoughts.

Wake this morning to freezing fog. Not such a good idea to unpeel to reveal much in this temperature.

Maybe later.

Little Onion